cinchona
Pronunciation: /sɪŋˈkəʊnə/
The English word “cinchona” has 3 meanings listed here.
noun
- A tree or shrub of the genus Cinchona, native to the Andes in South America but since widely cultivated in Indonesia and India as well for its medicinal bark.
- The bark of these plants, which yield quinine and other alkaloids useful in reducing fevers and particularly in combatting malaria.
- Any medicine chiefly composed of the prepared bark of these plants.
Etymology
From New Latin cinchona, from Spanish Chinchón. Named by Carl Linnaeus after Ana de Osorio, 4th Countess of Chinchón (1599–1625), the wife of the Spanish Viceroy of Peru, who was allegedly cured of a fever by the bark.
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.