Cinchona

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{{Taxobox | color = lightgreen | name = Cinchona | image = Koeh-179.jpg | image_width = 250px | image_caption = Cinchona calisaya | regnum = Plantae | divisio = Magnoliophyta | classis = Magnoliopsida | ordo = Gentianales | familia = Rubiaceae | genus = Cinchona | genus_authority = L. 1753 | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = about 25 species; see text }}

Cinchona is a genus of about 25 species in the family Rubiaceae, native to tropical South America. They are large shrubs or small trees growing to 5-15 metres tall with evergreen foliage.

Image:Cinchona.pubescens01.jpg The leaves are opposite, rounded to lanceolate, 10-40 cm long. The flowers are white, pink or red, produced in terminal panicles. The fruit is a small capsule containing numerous seeds.

The trees in this genus are the source of a variety of alkaloids, the most important of which is quinine, an anti-fever agent especially useful against malaria. The medicinally important part of the tree is the bark, which is stripped from the tree, dried and powdered. As a medicinal herb, cinchona bark is also known as Peruvian Bark.

Cinchona species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including The Engrailed and members of the genus Endoclita including E. damor, E. purpurescens and E. sericeus.

The name of the genus is due to Linnaeus, who named the tree in 1742 after a countess of Chinchon, the wife of a viceroy of Peru, who, in 1638, was introduced by natives to the medicinal properties of the bark. Stories of the medicinal properties of this bark, however, are perhaps noted in journals as far back as the 1560s-1570s (see the Ortiz link below).

Image:Cinchona.pubescens03.jpg The Italian botanist Pietro Castelli wrote a pamphlet noteworthy as being the first Italian publication that mentions the cinchona. By the 1630s (or 1640s, depending on the reference), the bark was being exported to Europe. In the late 1640s, the method of use of the bark was noted in the Schedula Romana, and in 1677 the use of the bark was noted in the London Pharmacopoeia.

The plants are cultivated in their native South America, and also in other tropical regions, notably in India and Java.

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