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Cinchona
Also called Fever Tree, Jesuit’s Bark, Quinine, Quinine Tree, Quinine Trees, Red Quinine, Yellow Quinine
Cinchona is a genus of about 23 or more species of evergreen trees and shrubs from the tropical Andes of South America, grown for the quinine-rich bark used against malaria. Plants in cultivation are usually species such as C. officinalis or C. pubescens, grown in warm, humid, partly shaded conditions.
Cinchona (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae containing at least 23 species of trees and shrubs. All 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 Helena in the South Atlantic, and São Tomé and Príncipe off the coast of tropical Africa, and others have been cultivated in India and Java, where they have formed hybrids.
Cinchona has been historically sought after for its medicinal value, as the bark of several species yields quinine and other alkaloids. Trees in the genus are also known as fever trees because of their antimalarial properties. These were the only effective treatments against malaria during the height of European colonialism, which made them of great economic and political importance.
Whether cinchona bark was used in any traditional medicines within Andean Indigenous groups when it first came to notice by Europeans is unclear. Since its first confirmed medicinal record in the early 17th century, it has been used as a treatment for malaria. This use was popularised in Europe by the Spanish colonisers of South America. The bark contains alkaloids, including quinine and quinidine. Cinchona is the only economically practical source of quinine, a drug that is still recommended for the treatment of falciparum malaria.
Cinchona species are used as food plants by the larvae of some lepidopteran species, including the engrailed, the commander, and members of the genus Endoclita, including E. damor, E. purpurescens, and E. sericeus.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cinchona by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
