A tropical South American tree whose bark contains alkaloid drugs, especially quinine, which are used to treat malaria and other diseases.
From Spanish cinchona, named after the Countess of Chinchón (wife of a 17th-century Peruvian viceroy) who supposedly was cured of fever by the bark. The Quechua indigenous people of Peru had used the bark for centuries before Spanish colonists learned of its value and brought it to Europe.
While the Countess of Chinchón story is likely just a legend, it shows how colonial-era medicine worked—Europeans renamed plants after themselves rather than honoring the indigenous people who actually discovered the medicine and used it for generations.
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