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cinchona Definition

cin·chona (sin kō′nə)

noun

  1. 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
  2. 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
cinchona Usage Examples

Modifies a noun

  • alkaloid: Importantly the cyclopropanes can be produced as either enantiomer using the quinine or quinidine series of cinchona alkaloid catalysts.
  • bark: The first drug picture clearly defined by him was that of cinchona bark.
  • tree: Cinchona trees in the wild grow only beyond the Amazon basin on the Eastern slopes of the Andes.