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 viceroy in Lima. While the veracity of the claims and the details are highly debated leaving it best treated as a legend, the curative properties were known even earlier. The history of the plant, their extracts, and the cures are however highly confused and controversial. Suggestions that the plant went by the native name of Quina Quina which yielded Quina bark have been questioned. Other fever cures from South America were known as Jesuit's Bark and Jesuit's Powder in Europe earlier but although they have been traced to "Cinchona", there is evidence of materials being derived from other species such