Definition of "cinchona" []

• Any of several trees and shrubs of the genus Cinchona, native chiefly to the Andes and cultivated for bark that yields the medicinal alkaloids quinine and quinidine, which are used to treat malaria. (noun)
• The dried bark of any of these plants. Also called Jesuit's bark, Peruvian bark. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The name cinchona is derived from that of the wife of a viceroy of Peru, who is said to have taken the drug from South America to Europe in"
• "This explains the fact that the above-named branches of science all possess an extensive literature on cinchona, which is accessible for purposes of comparison to those who care to study the subject in detail."
• "On the coasts of New Andalusia, the cuspa is considered as a kind of cinchona; and we were assured, that some Aragonese monks, who had long resided in the kingdom of New Grenada, recognised this tree from the resemblance of its leaves to those of the real Peruvian bark-tree."