Cinchona Totaquina required a minimum of 70% crystallizable alkaloids of which at least 15% was to be quinine with not more than 20% amorphous alkaloids. There are at least 24 species recognized by botanists. There are likely several unnamed species and many intermediate forms that have arisen due to the plants' tendency to hybridize. 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
History of malaria and make them more susceptible to other diseases. Spanish missionaries found that fever was treated by Amerindians near Loxa (Peru) with powder from Peruvian bark (later established to be from any of several trees of genus "Cinchona"). It was used by the Quechua Indians of Peru to reduce the shaking effects caused by severe chills. Jesuit Brother Agostino Salumbrino (1561–1642), who lived in Lima and was an apothecary by training, observed the Quechua using the bark of the cinchona tree for that purpose. While its effect in treating malaria (and hence malaria-induced shivering) was unrelated to its effect in controlling