Cinchona

Cinchona is a genus of flowering plants in the coffee family, Rubiaceae, subfamily Cinchonoideae, tribe Cinchoneae, containing at least 23 species of trees and shrubs, indigenous to the tropical Andean forests of western South America. Known as fever trees, several species yield quinine and other alkaloids from their bark and served as the only effective malaria treatment during European colonialism; some species have naturalized in Central America, Jamaica, French Polynesia, Sulawesi, Saint Helena and Sao Tome and Principe, while others have been cultivated in India and Java.