Cinchona (sinkona)

[NL. (Linnæus), for Chinch on a, so called after the Counte of Chinch on (Sp. Chinch on, a town in Spain near Madrid), vice-queen of Peru, who in 1638 was cured of fever by the use of cinchona bark, and who a isted in making the remedy known. The NL. name according to the Sp. would prop. be Chinch on a (pron. chin-chōng), but it rarely appears in that form, being adapted form and pron. to L. analogies.] 1. A genus of evergreen trees, natural order Rubiaceæ, natives of the Andes from the United States of Colombia to Bolivia, growing chiefly on the eastern slopes at an average altitude of from 5,000 to 8,000 feet. They are the source of Peruvian or cinchona bark and of quinine. There are about 40 speabout a dozen. The barks used in pharmacy are chiefly of three kinds: lox a, crown, or pale cinchona bark, the ordinary Peruvian bark, afforded by C. officinal is; calisaya or Flowering branch of Cinchona Calisaya , with single flower on larger scale. yellow cinchona bark, from C. Calisaya; and red cinchona bark, from C. succirubra. Several other barks are used exclusively in the manufacture of quinine, as the Colom dine. The amount of alkaloids yielded by the bark is very variable, from a very small percentage to as much as 12 per cent., of which from one third to three fourths is quinine. 2. [ l. c.] The medicinal bark of the species of Cinchona.- African cinchona, the bark of species of the rubiaceous genus Sarcocephalus, from western Africa. Also called doundaké. cinchonaceous (sin-kō-nã' shius), a. [ genus Cinchona. cinchona mine (sin-konʼa-min), n. [ Remijia Purdieana .