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cinchona
cinchona definition
cin·chona (sin kō′nə)
noun
- any of a genus (Cinchona) of tropical South American trees of the madder family, from the bark of which quinine and related medicinal alkaloids are obtained: the trees are widely cultivated in Asia and the East Indies
- the bitter bark of these trees
Etymology: ModL: coined by Carolus Linnaeus after the Countess del Chinchón, wife of a 17th-c. Peruvian viceroy, who was treated for fever with the bark
Related Forms:
- cinchonic cin·chon′ic (-kän′ik) adjective
Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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