Cinchona

October 26th, 2008

Botanical: Cinchona calisaya (WEDD.)
Family: N.O. Rubiaceae
Synonyms: Jesuit’s Powder, Yellow Cinchona,Quinaquina officinalis, Quinaquina lancifolia, Quinaquina coccinea
Common names: Quinine bark, quina, quinine, kinakina, China bark, cinchona bark, yellow cinchona, red cinchona, Peruvian bark, Jesuit’s bark, quina-quina, calisaya bark, fever tree
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Gentianales
Genus: Cinchona
Part Used: Bark.wood
Habitat:Native to tropical South America.Tropical valleys of the Andes. Bolivia and Southern Peru

Description:Cinchona is a genus of about 25 species. It is an important genus and comprises a large number of evergreen trees and shrubs, flowers white,yellow and pinkish arranged in panicles, very fragrant.The leaves are opposite, rounded to lanceolate, 10-40 cm long. The flowers are white, pink or red, produced in terminal panicles. The fruit is a small capsule containing numerous seeds.
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They grow 15-20 meters in height. All cinchonas are indigenous to the eastern slopes of the Amazonian area of the Andes, where they grow from 1,500-3,000 meters in elevation on either side of the equator (from Colombia to Bolivia). They can also be found in the northern part of the Andes (on the eastern slopes of the central and western ranges). They are now widely cultivated in many tropical countries for their commercial value, although they are not indigenous to those areas.

The name of the genus is due to Carolus “Carl” Linnaeus, who named the tree in 1742 after a Countess of Chinchon, the wife of a viceroy of Peru, who, in 1638, was introduced by natives to the medicinal properties of the bark. Stories of the medicinal properties of this bark, however, are perhaps noted in journals as far back as the 1560s-1570s

Not all the species yield cinchona or Peruvian bark. The most important is called Calisaya or yellow bark. Its great value as a tonic and febrifuge depends on an alkaloid, quina (Quinine). This substance chiefly exists in the cellular tissue outside the liber in combination with kinic and tannic acids. Calisaya yields the largest amount of this alkaloid of any of the species – often 70 to 80 per cent of the total alkaloids contained in the bark which is not collected from trees growing wild, but from those cultivated in plantations. The bark for commerce is classified under two headings: the druggist’s bark, and the manufacturer’s at a low price. The great bulk of the trade is in Amsterdam, and the bark sold there mainly comes from Java. That sold in London from India, Ceylon and South America. Mature Calisaya bark has a scaly appearance, which denotes maturity and high quality. It is very bitter, astringent and odourless.

Cinchona species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including The Engrailed, The Commander, and members of the genus Endoclita including E. damor, E. purpurescens and E. sericeus.

History:
The Italian botanist Pietro Castelli wrote a pamphlet noteworthy as being the first Italian publication that mentions the cinchona. By the 1630s (or 1640s, depending on the reference), the bark was being exported to Europe. In the late 1640s, the method of use of the bark was noted in the Schedula Romana, and in 1677 the use of the bark was noted in the London Pharmacopoeia.

According to legend, the first European ever to be cured from malaria fever was the wife of the Spanish Viceroy, the countess of Chinchon. The court physician was summoned and urged to save the countess from the waves of fever and chill that were threatening her life, but every effort failed to relieve her. At last the physician administered some medicine which he had obtained from the local Indians, who had been using it for similar syndromes. The countess survived the malarial attack and reportedly brought the cinchona bark back with her when she returned to Europe in the 1640s.

In 1753 Carolus Linnaeus named the bark Cinchona after the countess of Chinchon. The story of the cure of the countess, however, is doubtful.

Charles II called upon Mr Robert Talbor, who had become famous for his miraculous malaria cure. Because at that time the bark was in religious controversy, Talbor gave the king the bitter bark decoction in great secrecy. The treatment gave the king complete relief from the malaria fever. In return, he was offered membership of the prestigious Royal College of Physicians.

In 1679 Talbor was called by the King of France, Louis XIV, whose son was suffering from malaria fever. After a successful treatment, Talbor was rewarded by the king with 3,000 gold crowns. At the same time he was given a lifetime pension for this prescription. Talbor, however, was asked to keep the entire episode secret.

After the death of Talbor, the French king found this formula: six drams of rose leaves, two ounces of lemon juice and a strong decoction of the chinchona bark served with wine. Wine was used because some alkaloids of the cinchona bark are not soluble in water, but are soluble in wine.

The birth of homeopathy was based on quinine testing. The founder of homeopathy, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, when translating the Cullen’s Materia medica, noticed that Dr. Cullen wrote that quinine cures malaria and can also produce malaria. Dr. Hahnemann took daily a large non-homeopathic dose of quinine bark. After two weeks, he said he felt malaria-like symptoms. This idea of “like cures like” was the starting point of his writings on “Homeopathy”.

In 1738, Sur l’arbre du quinquina, a paper written by Charles Marie de La Condamine, a member of the expedition that was sent to Peru to determine the length of a degree of the meridian in the neighbourhood of the equator, was published by the French Academy of Sciences. In it he identified three separate species.

In 1742, on the basis of a specimen received from La Condamine, Linnaeus named the tree Quinquina condaminiae and established a new genus, which he termed Cinchona quinquina condaminiae. In 1753 he described Cinchona officinalis as a separate species

Species
*Cinchona antioquiae L.Andersson (1998).
*Cinchona asperifolia Wedd. (1848).
*Cinchona barbacoensis H.Karst. (1860).
*Cinchona × boliviana Wedd. (1848).
*Cinchona calisaya Wedd. (1848).
*Cinchona capuli L.Andersson (1994).
*Cinchona fruticosa L.Andersson (1998).
*Cinchona glandulifera Ruiz & Pav. (1802).
*Cinchona hirsuta Ruiz & Pav. (1799).
*Cinchona krauseana L.Andersson (1998).
*Cinchona lancifolia Mutis (1793).
*Cinchona lucumifolia Pav. ex Lindl. (1838).
*Cinchona macrocalyx Pav. ex DC. (1829).
*Cinchona micrantha Ruiz & Pav. (1799).
*Cinchona mutisii Lamb. (1821).
*Cinchona nitida Ruiz & Pav. (1799).
*Cinchona officinalis L. (1753): Quinine Bark
*Cinchona parabolica Pav. in J.E.Howard (1859).
*Cinchona pitayensis (Wedd.) Wedd. (1849).
*Cinchona pubescens Vahl (1790) : Quinine Tree
*Cinchona pyrifolia L.Andersson (1998).
*Cinchona rugosa Pav. in J.E.Howard (1859).
*Cinchona scrobiculata Humb. & Bonpl. (1808).
*Cinchona villosa Pav. ex Lindl. (1838).
*Cinchona succirubra
*Cinchona robusta
*Cinchona hybrida

Biological Activities & Clinical Research:-
Interestingly enough, natural quinine extracted from quinine bark and the use of natural bark tea and/or bark extracts are making a comeback in the management and treatment of malaria. Malaria strains have evolved which have developed a resistance to the synthesized quinine drugs. It was shown in early studies that an effective dose of natural quinine bark extract elicited the same antimalarial activity as an effective dose of the synthesized quinine drug. Scientists are now finding that these new strains of drug-resistant malaria can be treated effectively with natural quinine and/or quinine bark extracts. As evolving pathogens develop widespread resistance to our standard antibiotics, antivirals, and antimalarial drugs, it is of little wonder that the use of the natural medicine in quinine bark is being revisited, even by such giants as the World Health Organization.

A recent use for quinine drugs has been for the treatment of muscle spasms and leg cramps. A 1998 study documented the beneficial effects of quinine for leg cramps, with tinnitus being the only documented side effect. In 2002, a double-blind placebo study was undertaken in which 98 people with nocturnal leg cramps were given 400 mg of quinine daily for 2 weeks. The results stated that quinine administered at this dose effectively reduced the frequency, intensity, and pain of leg cramps without relevant side-effects. This use has fueled the natural product market and more people are looking for natural quinine bark as an alternative to the synthesized prescription drugs for this purpose.

Current Practical Uses :-
Quinine bark is harvested today much as it has been for hundreds of years. The tree trunks are beaten and the peeling bark is removed. The bark partially regenerates on the tree and, after a few years and several cycles of bark removal, the trees are uprooted and new ones are planted. The commercial quinine market today is difficult to calculate. It is thought that 300-500 metric tons of quinine alkaloids are extracted annually from 5,000-10,000 metric tons of harvested bark. Nearly half of the harvest is directed to the food industry for the production of quinine water, tonic water, and as an FDA-approved bitter food additive. The remainder is utilized in the manufacture of the quinidine prescription drug. Quinine is very bitter tasting and commercially sold tonic waters often use quinine as it’s bitter ingredient/component. Commercially-produced tonic water usually contains around 100 to 300 parts per million quinine and up to a maximum allowable concentration of 70 milligrams of quinine per liter.

The longstanding natural remedy for quinine bark usually calls for a cup of boiling water to be poured over approximately 1-2 g of ground or chopped natural bark and allowed to steep for ten minutes. A cupful of this infusion is drunk half an hour before meals to stimulate the appetite, or after meals to treat digestive disorders. The use of pure quinine at large dosages can be toxic. The reported therapeutic oral dose for quinine alkaloids in adults is between 167-333 mg three times per day. Reportedly, a single dose of 2-8 grams of pure quinine alkaloids taken orally may be fatal to an adult. Natural bark teas prepared in the traditional manner, however, have a long history of use without toxic effects. A cup of traditional quinine bark tea would provide approximately 100 mg of total alkaloids, including quinine (based upon an average of 5% total alkaloid content in the raw bark).

The history of the cinchona tree provides a perfect example of how a natural product can go from folklore and indigenous use into world trade-and then into the drug market. It’s also a perfect example of how indigenous peoples and countries with important natural resources are too often pirated and left out of the profit loop by industrialized nations and rich, multinational, profit-driven organizations. Despite the fact that quinine and quinidine drugs were patented and sold, Peru and Bolivia – from whence the discovery was made and the resources extracted – did not share in the patents or resulting profits. Their natural resources were smuggled out and profitable world markets were created from them. They were poor, developing nations without multinational backing or investment capital – and ended up at the bottom of the heap while competing in a global market for resources indigenous to their countries.

While governments are making inroads and new laws concerning biodiversity and intellectual property rights to correct this situation, business still has a long way to go to “do the right thing.” Ideally, if natural quinine bark makes a comeback in the growing natural products industry or new drugs are developed for these drug-resistant strains of malaria, these new laws will protect the natural resources of these developing nations.

Constituents: The bark should yield between 5 and 6 per cent of total alkaloids, of which not less than half should consist of quinine and cinchonidin. Other constituents are cinchonine, quinidine, hydrocinchonidine, quinamine, homokinchonidine, hydroquinine; quinic and cinchotannic acids, a bitter amorphous glucocide, starch and calcium-oxalate.Quinine, Quinidine, Cinchonine, Chinchonidine, tannic acid; thirty-two natural and eight artificial alkaloids, resinoid, volatile oil, gum, sugar and wax.

Medicinal use:-
The medicinally active bark, which is stripped from the tree, dried and powdered, includes other alkaloids that are closely related to quinine but react differently in treating malaria. As a medicinal herb, cinchona bark is also known as Jesuit’s bark or Peruvian bark.

The plants are cultivated in their native South America, and also in other tropical regions, notably in India and Java.

Treatments:-
Cinchona has been used for a number of medical reasons such as:

*Treats malaria
*Kills parasites
*Reduces fever
*Regulates heartbeat
*Calms nerves
*Stimulates digestion
*Kills germs
*Reduces spasms
*Kills insects
*Relieves pain
*Kills bacteria and fungi
*Dries secretions

The main reason for its use is to treat malaria, but it is rarely used today as many people think it is dangerous, as it can kill if taken in large amounts

Preparations and Dosages: Decoction of Cinchona, B.P., 1/2 to 2 fluid ounces. Elixir of Cinchona or Elixir of Calisaya, B.P.C., 1/2 to 1 fluid drachm. Tincture of Cinchona, B.P.C., 1/2 to 1 fluid drachm. Cinchona wine, B.P.C., 1/2 to 1 fluid ounce.

Extractum Cinchonae, Extract of Cinchona. Dose, one to five grains.
Extractum Cinchonae Fluidum, Fluid Extract of Cinchona. Dose, ten to sixty minims.
Specific Medicine Cinchona. Dose, one to thirty minims.

Contraindications: Quinine bark contains naturally-occurring quinine alkaloids. These quinine alkaloids are sold as prescription drugs with numerous side effects and warnings documented in the literature. Do not exceed the quinine bark natural remedy amounts shown above unless you are under the care and advice of a qualified health care practitioner who is familiar with the warnings, side effects, and contraindications of higher therapeutic levels of quinine alkaloids.

Drug Interactions: May potentiate blood thinning medications such as Warfarin.

You may click to see for more knowledge :->Calisaya , Peruvian Bark

Disclaimer:The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:

http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/calisa08.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinchona

http://www.henriettesherbal.com/eclectic/ellingwood/cinchona.html

http://www.hear.org/starr/plants/images/species/?q=cinchona+calisaya

http://www.rain-tree.com/quinine.htm