cinchona Hear it!

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

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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