Also chinchona. [Named in 1742 by Linnæus in honor of the Countess of Chinchon (in Spain), who in 1638, when vice-queen of Peru, was cured of a tertian fever by the use of Peruvian bark, and in 1640 brought a supply of it to Spain, whence it became known throughout Europe. On the ground that Linnæus’s form Cinchona was due to erroneous information, it has been proposed to alter it to Chinchona; but the accepted form is too deeply rooted in botanical and chemical nomenclature to make this expedient. The word has no etymological connection with quina, which is Peruvian for ‘bark’: see however CHINA3.]
1. A genus of evergreen trees or shrubs with fragrant white or pink panicled flowers, growing in the tropical valleys of the Andes, and now extensively cultivated in India and Java for the sake of the bark.
1742. Linnæus, Genera Plant. (ed. 2), 527. (In Pentandria monogynia) … 1021 Cinchona, Quinquina.
1786. in T. J. Pettigrew, Mem. J. C. Lettsom (1817), III. 222. I have sent some of the bark of the Cinquona.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 233. There are … twelve species of Cinchona from which the Peruvian bark of commerce is derived.
1880. C. R. Markham, Peruv. Bark, iii. 12–3. In memory of the great service to humanity performed by the Countess of Chinchon, Linnæus named the genus which yields Peruvian bark, Chinchona. Unfortunately the great botanist … spelt the word Cinchona … and Cinhona.… The correct spelling ought now to be generally adopted.
2. The medicinal bark of species of Cinchona, Peruvian bark; also the drug prepared from it.
1800. H. Davies, in Med. Jrnl., IV. 161. Active and important remedies; such as, hydrargyrum, cinchona, opium,… &c.
1803. Sir H. Davy, in Phil. Trans., XCIII. 268. Very little tannin is found in cinchona, or in the other barks supposed to be possessed of febrifuge properties.
1866. Treas. Bot., s.v. Cinchona, There are … twenty-one species of this genus, but only some of them yield commercial Cinchona.
3. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 205. The Cinchona forests.
1837. Penny Cycl., VII. 169/1. Pöppig … has … long lived in the Cinchona countries.
1858. R. Hogg, Veget. Kingd., 403. The genuine cinchona trees are confined exclusively to South America.
1870. Pall Mall Gaz., 26 Aug., 4/1. The cinchona plantations in the Madras Government gardens are most thriving.
b. Comb., as cinchona-bark, the bark of several species of cinchona, of great medicinal value as a tonic and febrifuge. Called also Jesuit’s Bark, Peruvian Bark, Quinquina. Cinchona-bases, alkaloids contained in Cinchona bark; Cinchona-red, an amorphous dark reddish-brown substance, obtained from Cinchona bark.
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), 595. Infusion of yellow cinchona bark.
1881. Med. Temp. Jrnl., XLVIII. 176. During convalescence red cinchona bark strengthens and sustains nerve power.
1888. Spectator, 30 June, 916/1. That most priceless of barks, the ‘chinchona bark,’ truly called by the Indians ‘quina-quina,’ i.e. ‘bark of barks.’
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 804. Cinchona Red, an amorphous dark reddish-brown substance, obtained from … Peruvian bark.
Hence Cinchonaceous a. Bot., belonging to the natural order Cinchonaceæ of which Cinchona is the typical genus. Cinchonal a. Bot., epithet of Lindley’s ‘alliance’ of natural orders related to the Cinchonaceæ. Cinchonamine, Chem., a base C19 H24 N2 O obtained from cinchona. Cinchonate, a salt of cinchonic acid. Cinchonia, Chem. = Cinchonine. Cinchonic a., of or pertaining to cinchona, as in Cinchonic Acid, C11 H14 O2, obtained from cinchona; formerly applied to QUINIC acid; cinchonic red = cinchona red. Cinchonicia, Cinchonicine, an alkaloid isomeric with cinchonine. Cinchonidia, Cinchonidine, another of the cinchona bases, isomeric with cinchonine, but distinguished from it by its deflecting the plane of polarization of a ray of light to the left.
1865. Livingstone, Zambesi, xxvii. 563. There are several cinchonaceous trees also in the country.
1866. Treas. Bot., I. 285/2. Cinchonaceæ … A natural order … characterizing Lindley’s cinchonal alliance.
1881. Nature, No. 627. 23. Cinchonamine … differs from Cinchonine in having 2 atoms more hydrogen.
1808. Thomson, Oxalic Acid, in Phil. Trans., XCVIII. 66, note. Cinchonate of lime.
1831. T. P. Jones, Convers. Chem., xxviii. 285. Cinchonia, and quinia … are alkaline principles, both contained in Peruvian bark.
1837. Penny Cycl., VII. 174/1. Slightly soluble red colouring matter or red cinchonic acid.
1858. R. Hogg, Veget. Kingd., 407. Kinic Acid, or, as it is sometimes called, Cinchonic and Quinic Acid, is generally in the form of a thick syrupy liquid.
1853. Pasteur, in Pharmac. Jrnl., XIII. 374. When cinchonine … is subjected to the action of heat, it becomes transformed into a new base isomeric with it, but possessing totally different characters. This new base I call cinchonicine.
1869. Roscoe, Elem. Chem., 431. Quinine and cinchonine yields two isomeric modifications, quinidine and quinicine, cinchonidine and cinchonicine.
1853. Pasteur, in Pharmac. Jrnl., XIII. 374. The other base, to which I give the name of cinchonidine.
