Bark (botany) rope, used for example in the rigging of Viking age longships. Among the commercial products made from bark are cork, cinnamon, quinine (from the bark of Cinchona) and aspirin (from the bark of willow trees). The bark of some trees notably oak ("Quercus robur") is a source of tannic acid, which is used in tanning. Bark chips generated as a by-product of lumber production are often used in bark mulch in western North America. Bark is important to the horticultural industry since in shredded form it is used for plants that do not thrive in ordinary soil, such as epiphytes.
Cinchona viceroy in Lima. While the veracity of the claims and the details are highly debated leaving it best treated as a legend, the curative properties were known even earlier. The history of the plant, their extracts, and the cures are however highly confused and controversial. Suggestions that the plant went by the native name of Quina Quina which yielded Quina bark have been questioned. Other fever cures from South America were known as Jesuit's Bark and Jesuit's Powder in Europe earlier but although they have been traced to "Cinchona", there is evidence of materials being derived from other species such