CINCHONA • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Cinchona

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

noun

Cinchona n.

(Bot.) A genus of trees growing naturally on the Andes in Peru and adjacent countries, but now cultivated in the East Indies, producing a medicinal bark of great value.

(Med.) The bark of any species of Cinchona containing three per cent. or more of bitter febrifuge alkaloids; Peruvian bark; Jesuits' bark.

See images of 'Cinchona'

Etymology of 'Cinchona'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Cinchona" Quotes from Famous Books

... so very different from each other in composition and in all of their properties. From the seed-vessels of one (the poppy) we collect a juice which dries up into our commercial opium; from the bark of another (cinchona) we extract the quinine with which we assuage the raging fever; from the leaves of others, like those of hemlock and tobacco, we distil deadly poisons, often of rare value for their medicinal uses. The flowers and leaves of some yield volatile ...

— The Light of Egypt, Volume II • Henry O. Wagner/Belle M. Wagner/Thomas H. Burgoyne

... before Columbus came, the first four from most ancient times. The manioc or tapioca-plant, the red-pepper plant, the marmalade plum, and the tomato were raised in South America before 1500. The persimmon, the cinchona tree, millet, the Virginia and the Chili strawberry are natives of this continent, but have been brought under cultivation only within the ...

— History of the United States, Vol. I (of VI) • E. Benjamin Andrews

Words linked to "Cinchona" : Jesuit's bark, Peruvian bark, Cartagena bark, genus Cinchona, Cinchona calisaya, Cinchona ledgeriana, Cinchona pubescens, tree, bark