Bark (botany) rope, used for example in the rigging of Viking age longships. Among the commercial products made from bark are cork, cinnamon, quinine (from the bark of Cinchona) and aspirin (from the bark of willow trees). The bark of some trees notably oak ("Quercus robur") is a source of tannic acid, which is used in tanning. Bark chips generated as a by-product of lumber production are often used in bark mulch in western North America. Bark is important to the horticultural industry since in shredded form it is used for plants that do not thrive in ordinary soil, such as epiphytes.
Schedula Romana treatment for malaria was found in the forests of the Andes in Peru. A such called fever tree, whose bark, made into powder and given as a beverage, cured the fevers and was known to have produced miraculous results in the local population. The bark was obtained from several species of the genus "Cinchona", of the Rubiaceae family. Popularized in Europe through the work of jesuits in America, the cinchona tree bark came to be known as Jesuit's bark. Perhaps the most prominent popularizer of the Jesuit's bark was a Spanish Jesuit Cardinal, Juan de Lugo. In 1643, Cardinal Lugo