Cinchona officinalis (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

1, tree habit; 2, flowering twig; 3, flowers in longitudinal section showing heterodistyly; 4, fruiting twig (Achmad Satiri Nurhaman)

Cinchona officinalis L.

Protologue: Sp. pl. 1: 172 (1753).

Synonyms

• Cinchona calisaya Wedd. (1848),
• Cinchona ledgeriana Moens ex Trimen (1881).

Vernacular names

• Crown cinchona, Ledger cinchona, yellow cinchona (En).

Distribution

Naturally distributed in South America from Colombia to Bolivia; planted in many tropical countries, e.g. in India and Indonesia (Java).

Uses

The bark is the traditional source of quinine, the classical industrial anti-malaria drug.

Observations

• A small tree, up to 16 m tall.
• Leaves 7-28 cm × 2.5-13 cm, glabrous and with domatia beneath.
• Flowers with glabrous calyx and yellowish-white to fleshy-coloured or red corolla, 8-17 mm long.
• Fruit up to 25 mm long, glabrous or sparsely pubescent.

C. officinalis occurs naturally in mountainous regions at 1200-3000 m altitude. In Java, it is planted at 800-2000 m.

Selected sources

• Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1963) 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965) 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968) 761 pp.
• Badan Litbang Pertanian & APPPI, 1995. Petunjuk kultur teknis tanaman kina [Technical instructions for the planting of kina]. Jakarta, Indonesia. 143 pp.
• Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. Revised reprint. 2 volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Vol. 1 (A-H) pp. 1-1240. Vol. 2 (I- Z) pp. 1241-2444.
• Gramiccia, G., 1987. Notes on the early history of cinchona plantations. Acta Leidensia 55: 5-13.
• Heyne, K., 1950. De nuttige planten van Indonesië [The useful plants of Indonesia]. 3rd Edition. 2 volumes. W. van Hoeve, 's Gravenhage, the Netherlands/Bandung, Indonesia. 1660 + CCXLI pp.
• Mansfeld, R., 1986. Verzeichnis landwirtschaflicher und gaertnerischer Kulturpflanzen (ohne Zierpflanzen) [Register of agricultural and horticultural plants (withouth ornamentals)]. 2nd Edition, revised by J. Schultze Motel. 4 volumes. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 1998 pp.
• Purseglove, J.W., 1968-1972. Tropical crops. Longman, London. United Kingdom. Dicotyledons. 2 volumes (1968), 719 pp. Monocotyledons. 2 volumes (1972), 607 pp.
• Quisumbing, E., 1978. Medicinal plants of the Philippines. Katha Publishing Co., Quezon City, the Philippines. 1262 pp.
• Samuelsson, G. (Editor), 1992. Drugs of natural origin, a textbook of pharmacognosy. Swedish Pharmaceutical Press, Stockholm, Sweden. 320 pp.

Main genus page

• Cinchona (Medicinal plants)

Authors

G. Staritsky, E. Huffnagel, A. Dharmadi & S.L. Dalimoenthe