Quinine London. It remained the antimalarial drug of choice until the 1940s, when other drugs took over. The form of quinine most effective in treating malaria was found by Charles Marie de La Condamine in 1737. In 1820, French researchers Pierre Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Bienaimé Caventou first isolated quinine from the bark of a tree in the genus "Cinchona" - probably "Cinchona officinalis" - and subsequently named the substance. The name was derived from the original Quechua (Inca) word for the cinchona tree bark, "quina" or "quina-quina", which means "bark of bark" or "holy bark". Prior to 1820, the bark
Cinchona "plea for the correct spelling of the genus "Chinchona"". A Spanish physician, Juan Fragoso wrote of bark powder from an unknown tree in 1600 that was used for treating various ills. Nicolas Monardes also wrote of a New World bark powder used in Spain in 1574. Both identify the sources as trees that do not bear fruit and having heart-shaped leaves and it has been suggested that these references could be to "Cinchona" species. The name Quina-Quina or Quinquina was suggested as an old name for Cinchona used in Europe and based on the native name used by the Quechua