cinchona
Americannoun
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any of several trees or shrubs of the genus Cinchona, of the madder family, especially C. calisaya, native to the Andes, cultivated there and in Java and India for its bark, which yields quinine and other alkaloids.
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Also called Jesuit's bark, Peruvian bark. the medicinal bark of such trees or shrubs.
noun
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any tree or shrub of the South American rubiaceous genus Cinchona, esp C. calisaya, having medicinal bark
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Also called: cinchona bark. Peruvian bark. calisaya. china bark. the dried bark of any of these trees, which yields quinine and other medicinal alkaloids
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any of the drugs derived from cinchona bark
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cinchona
< New Latin, the Linnaean genus name, after Francisca Enriques de Ribera, Countess of Chinchón (died 1641), who was associated with the introduction of quinine into Europe, in several accounts now considered spurious
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Carbonated water failed to do that but it did inspire the creation of medicated water, or tonic water infused with quinine from the bark of the cinchona tree.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2023
The Columbian exchange introduced Europe not just to new foods and flavors but also to novel medicines, like the bark of the cinchona tree, which was eventually developed into quinine to treat malaria.
From New York Times ● Sep. 14, 2016
The seventeenth-century observation that indigenous people in South America used the bark of the cinchona plant to treat malaria, for example, led to the discovery of quinine and the development of the first antimalarial drugs.
From Nature ● Sep. 22, 2015
Illustration B shows the teardrop-shaped leaves and small pink flowers of a cinchona tree.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
At the time, the only medicine to combat malaria was quinine, which is extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree.
From "Death on the River of Doubt" by Samantha Seiple
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
