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
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