Cinchona economically practical source of quinine, a drug that is still recommended for the treatment of "falciparum" malaria. The Italian botanist Pietro Castelli wrote a pamphlet noteworthy as being the first Italian publication to mention the cinchona. By the 1630s (or 1640s, depending on the reference), the bark was being exported to Europe. In the late 1640s, the method of use of the bark was noted in the "Schedula Romana." English King Charles II called upon Robert Talbor, who had become famous for his miraculous malaria cure. Because at that time the bark was in religious controversy, Talbor gave the king
Cinchona Garden in January 1861. James Taylor, the pioneer of tea planting in Sri Lanka, was one of the pioneers of cinchona cultivation. By 1883, about were in cultivation in Sri Lanka, with exports reaching a peak of 15 million pounds in 1886. The cultivation (initially of "Cinchona succirubra" and later of "C. calisaya") was extended through the work of George King and others into the hilly terrain of Darjeeling District of Bengal. Cinchona factories were established at Naduvattam in the Nilgiris and at Mungpoo, Darjeeling, West Bengal. Quinologists were appointed to oversee the extraction of alkaloids with John Broughton in