# Cinchona

*Jesuits’ bark, Peruvian bark*

**Known today as.** The bark of *Cinchona* trees of the Andes.

Kind: Plant

## What was it used for?

Against the tertian and quartan agues, which it cured as nothing had before.

## What does modern science say?

Quinine, isolated from it by Pelletier and Caventou in 1820, was for three centuries the chief remedy for malaria.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **quinine**: 
- **quinidine**: its stereoisomer, an antiarrhythmic
- **cinchonine**: 

**Mechanism.** Quinine poisons the malaria parasite in the red cell, and quinidine blocks the sodium channels of the heart; in overdose it causes cinchonism, with ringing ears, blindness, and arrhythmia.

**Dose.** About 2–8 g of quinine; the tonic water of today holds a tenth of the old dose per glass.

**Standing.** Quinine is on the WHO list of essential medicines for severe malaria, after artemisinin.

## What lore surrounds it?

Folkard tells the discovery legend: “Some Cinchona-trees being thrown by the winds into a pool, lay there until the water became so bitter that everyone refused to drink it, till one of the inhabitants of the district being seized with violent fever, and finding no water wherewith to quench his thirst, was forced to drink of this, by which means he became perfectly cured.” The bark came to Europe “through the medium of Ana de Osorio, Countess Cinchon, and Vice-Queen of Peru, after whom the powdered bark was called ‘Countess's Powder.’”

## What did the older authorities say?

**The Jesuits.** Brought the bark from Peru to Europe in the 1630s, whence its name, and its Protestant enemies’ suspicion of it.

**Linnaeus.** Named the genus for the Countess of Chinchón, said, probably falsely, to have been cured by it in Lima.

## Sources

- Pelletier, P. J., & Caventou, J. B. (1820). Recherches chimiques sur les quinquinas.
- Folkard, R. (1884). *Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics*, “Cinchona.” Project Gutenberg #44638.
- Achan, J., et al. (2011). “Quinine, an old anti-malarial drug.” *Malaria Journal* 10.

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*Cinchona.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/cinchona

Historical description, not medical advice.