Quinine [kwinʹin]
From the Quechua kina, “bark,” quinine is an alkaloid of cinchona that has antimalarial properties. In the 1620s, Jesuit missionaries living in Peru learned of the healing powers of the bark of “fever trees” that grew in the high forests of Peru and Bolivia.
Footnotes
Suggested citation for this article: Etymologia: Quinine. Emerg Infect Dis. 2015 Jul [date cited]. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2107.ET2107
Sources
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