A type of cinchona bark from a Peruvian tree, valued for its quinine content and used historically to treat malaria and fever.
From Spanish calisaya, from Quechua origin referring to the region or bark type in South America; became known in Europe as the source of quinine in the 1600s.
Calisaya bark was literally called 'fever bark' by Indigenous peoples, and when Spanish colonists brought it to Europe, it transformed medicine—quinine from this bark was one of the first truly effective malaria treatments.
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