Cinchona

sin-ko'na, or Chinchona, a genus of evergreen trees. They grow chiefly on the eastern slopes of the Andes from Colombia to Brazil, at an altitude of from 5,000 to 8,000 feet. They are the sources of Peruvian or cinchona bark and of quinine. There are about forty species. About a dozen are valuable commercially. The bark is removed by the natives, and is brought in for sale in bales. The derivation of the name is interesting. A countess of Chinchona, so called from the town of that name near Madrid, Spain, was the vice-queen of Peru. In 1638 she was cured of a fever by the use of Peruvian bark. The countess advertised the curative qualities of the bark, and the botanist, Linnaeus, immortalized the countess by naming the genus chinchona. The first "h" is omitted usually. The cultivation has been encouraged by the British and Dutch governments. Extensive plantations exist on the mountain slopes of Jamaica, the Himalayas, Java, and Ceylon. The bark is valuable for the extract known as quinine. About 4,000,000 pounds of cinchona bark are imported by American druggists yearly. See Quinine