Cinchona ledgeriana" had a yield of 8 to 13 percent quinine in bark grown in Dutch Indonesia which effectively out-competed the British Indian production. It was only later that the English saw the value and sought to obtain the seeds of "C. ledgeriana" from the Dutch. During World War II, the Japanese conquered Java and the United States lost access to the cinchona plantations that supplied war-critical quinine medication. Botanical expeditions – called Cinchona Missions – were launched in 1942-1944 to explore promising areas of South America in an effort to locate cinchona species that contained quinine and could be harvested
Cinchona a strong decoction of the cinchona bark served with wine. Wine was used because some alkaloids of the cinchona bark are not soluble in water, but are soluble in the ethanol in wine. In 1681 "Água de Inglaterra" was introduced into Portugal from England by Dr. Fernando Mendes who, similarly, “received a handsome gift from (King Pedro) on condition that he should reveal to him the secret of its composition and withhold it from the public”. In 1738, "Sur l'arbre du quinquina", a paper written by Charles Marie de La Condamine, lead member of the expedition, along with Pierre Godin