cinchona Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun medicinal bark of cinchona trees; source of quinine and quinidine
    Jesuit's bark; cinchona bark; Peruvian bark.
  2. noun any of several trees of the genus Cinchona
    chinchona.

WordNet

Cin*cho"na noun
Etymology
So named from the wife of Count Chinchon, viceroy of Peru in the seventeenth century, who by its use was freed from an intermittent fever, and after her return to Spain, contributed to the general propagation of this remedy.
Definitions
  1. (Bot.) A genus of trees growing naturally on the Andes in Peru and adjacent countries, but now cultivated in the East Indies, producing a medicinal bark of great value.
  2. (Med.) The bark of any species of cinchona containing three per cent. or more of bitter febrifuge alkaloids; Peruvian bark; Jesuits' bark.

Webster 1913