Cinchona officinalis many-flowered; hypanthium with short coarse hairs; reddish calyx, glabrous or nearly so, with triangular lobes; pink or red corolla, sericeous, the lobes ovate, acute, the corolla tube being about 1 cm. long. Fruit and oblong capsule, 1.5–2 cm. long, almost glabrous. English: quinine, red cinchona, cinchona bark, Jesuit’s bark, loxa bark, Jesuit’s powder, countess powder, Peruvian bark. Spanish: quina, cascarilla, cargua cargua, corteza coja. French: quinquina, écorce du Pérou. "Cinchona officinalis" is a medicinal plant, one of several "Cinchona" species used for the production of quinine, which is an anti-fever agent. It is especially useful in the prevention and treatment
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