Botanical atlas

Peruvian Bark (Cinchona)

Cinchona ledgeriana

Long before Europeans arrived in South America, healers in the Andes understood that the bitter bark of certain highland trees could break a fever. When Jesuit missionaries carried this knowledge back across the Atlantic in the seventeenth century, the bark became known simply as the fever tree, and it went on to reshape the course of medicine and empire alike. Cinchona ledgeriana, in particular, was prized above all its cousins because its bark carries an unusually high concentration of quinine, the alkaloid that made it the most effective malaria treatment in the world for nearly three centuries. Charles Ledger's seed collection, smuggled out of Bolivia in the 1860s and planted in Dutch Java, gave this species its name and made it the backbone of the global quinine trade.

Safety.

Cinchona bark contains quinine and related alkaloids that are toxic in excess, and even normal doses commonly cause ringing ears, blurred vision, headache, and nausea. Quinine can also trigger dangerous heart rhythm problems and serious allergic or blood reactions, is unsafe in pregnancy, and interacts with blood thinners and heart medications, so it should only be used under direct medical supervision.