Description

Cinchona officinalis, the Peruvian bark tree, is a medium to large evergreen tree of the family Rubiaceae, native to the cloud forests of the Andes in Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia at elevations between 1,500 and 3,000 metres. The bark, historically known as Jesuit’s Bark or Peruvian Bark, was introduced to Europe in the 17th century and became the world’s primary source of quinine — the first effective pharmacological treatment for malaria. Introduced to the Nilgiri Hills of India by British colonial authorities in the 1860s for plantation cultivation, it established a significant Indian commercial bark industry. Listed in numerous national pharmacopoeias, Cinchona bark remains a reference standard in the history of pharmaceutical botany and antimalarial drug discovery.