Cinchona Cinchona Cinchona is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae containing at least 23 species of trees and shrubs. They are native to the tropical Andean forests of western South America. A few species are reportedly naturalized in Central America, Jamaica, French Polynesia, Sulawesi, Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, and São Tomé and Príncipe off the coast of tropical Africa. Several species were sought after for their medicinal value and cultivated in India and Java where they also formed hybrids. The barks of several species yield quinine and other alkaloids that were the only effective treatments against
Cinchona people. Italian sources spelt Quina as Cina which was a source of confusion with "Smilax" from China. Haggis argued that Qina and Jesuit's bark actually referred to "Myroxylon peruiferum" or Peruvian balsam and that this was an item of importance in Spanish trade in the 1500s. Over time, the bark of the "Myroxylon" was adulterated with the similar looking bark of what we now know as "Cinchona". Gradually the adulterant became the main product that was the key therapeutic ingredient used in malarial therapy. The bark was included as "Cortex Peruanus" in the London Pharmacopoeia in 1677. The "fever tree"