Cinchona genus is the source of a variety of alkaloids, the most familiar of which is quinine, an antipyretic (antifever) agent especially useful in treating malaria. Cinchona alkaloids include: They find use in organic chemistry as organocatalysts in asymmetric synthesis. Alongside the alkaloids, many cinchona barks contain cinchotannic acid, a particular tannin, which by oxidation rapidly yields a dark-coloured phlobaphene called red cinchonic, cinchono-fulvic acid or cinchona red. In 1934, efforts to make malaria drugs cheap and effective for use across countries led to the development of a standard called "totaquina" proposed by the Malaria Commission of the League of Nations.
Cinchona South America, the species had geographically distinct distributions. The introduction of several species into cultivation in the same areas in India and Java, respectively, by the English and Dutch East India Companies led to the formation of hybrids. Linnaeus described the genus based on the species "Cinchona officinalis." Nearly 300 species have been described and named in the genus but a revision of the genus in 1998 identified 23 distinct species. The febrifugal properties of bark from trees now known to be in the genus "Cinchona" were used by many South American cultures but malaria was an Old World disease