Chem. [f. CINCHONA + -INE.] An organic alkaloid, C20 H24 N2 O, with febrifuge qualities, commonly associated with quinine, in various cinchona barks.
1825. Good, Study Med., II. 134. The French Chemists have put us into possession of two distinct salts of this kind, Quinine and Cinchonine, of which the former is the more powerful.
1881. Gard. Chron., XVI. 687/1. Barks grown at low elevations contain less quinine and more cinchonine than those at high elevations.
2. Cinchonine group, the group of chemical substances containing cinchonine, and the bases cinchonicine and cinchonidine isomeric with it, with their derivatives.
1879. Watts, Dict. Chem., VIII. 479.
Hence Cinchoninic Acid, produced by oxidation of cinchonine; its salts are Cinchoninates.
1879. Watts, Dict. Chem., VIII. 482. Cinchonine treated with nitric acid … yields … cinchoninic acid, etc.
