Eden Apothecary · Herb Profile
Cinchona officinalis
Also known as Cinchona
Pronounced Peruvian Bark = puh-ROO-vee-un bark; Cinchona officinalis = sin-KOH-nuh oh-fiss-ih-NAY-liss
Cold, dry, intensely bitter and astringent: the archetypal fever bark that breaks and cools periodic, intermittent fever, tightens lax atonic tissue, and rekindles appetite and digestion in the wrung-out, convalescent, depleted.
Avoid the medicinal herb in pregnancy. Cinchona has a long abortifacient and oxytocic reputation, quinine crosses the placenta, and overdose in pregnancy has been linked in case reports to stillbirth, congenital deafness, optic-nerve hypoplasia and CNS, limb, facial and cardiac anomalies; quinine also stimulates insulin, causing maternal and fetal hypoglycemia that can be severe in late pregnancy. Prescription quinine is used to treat life-threatening malaria in pregnancy under medical supervision, where benefit outweighs risk, but uncontrolled-dose herbal bark should not be used. Source: UKTIS, Use of Quinine in Pregnancy; AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook, 2nd ed. (Cinchona); Brinker, Herb Contraindications and Drug Interactions.
Generally compatible in small amounts, with one firm exception. Quinine passes into breast milk only at low levels (about 2.6 mg/L on maternal antimalarial dosing) and is rated compatible with breastfeeding by the American Academy of Pediatrics, so a bitter-tonic dose is unlikely to harm a healthy infant. It is contraindicated, however, when the infant is G6PD-deficient: quinine in milk (even from tonic water) has caused severe hemolytic crises in G6PD-deficient breastfed babies. Source: LactMed (Drugs and Lactation Database, NCBI), Quinine.
Not for self-treatment in children. Quinine has a narrow safety margin and children are vulnerable to cinchonism, hypoglycemia and, if G6PD-deficient, hemolysis; fatal pediatric quinine poisonings are documented. Any use for a child, for example prescription quinine for malaria, belongs with a physician. Source: AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook, 2nd ed.; Qualaquin (quinine sulfate) FDA prescribing information.
Cinchona bark contains quinine and related alkaloids with a narrow margin of safety. Excess or prolonged use causes cinchonism: ringing in the ears, deafness, headache, blurred vision, nausea and vertigo, reversible at first but potentially serious. Larger overdose is cardiotoxic (the bark also holds quinidine) and can cause dangerous arrhythmia and hypotension; it can trigger immune thrombocytopenia (bruising and bleeding) and, in G6PD-deficient people, hemolysis. Quinine stimulates insulin release and can cause hypoglycemia. Ground bark and quinine are notable sensitizers, causing urticaria, contact dermatitis and other hypersensitivity reactions. Use only low, well-measured bitter-tonic doses; this is a practitioner-gated herb, not for casual or high-dose self-treatment.
Contraindicated in known hypersensitivity to quinine, quinidine or cinchona; in G6PD deficiency (hemolysis); in a history of quinine-induced thrombocytopenia, hemolytic-uremic syndrome or blackwater fever; in optic neuritis, tinnitus or hearing disorders; in myasthenia gravis (quinine worsens neuromuscular weakness); and in cardiac conduction defects or QT prolongation. Avoid in pregnancy (see below). Not a substitute for the diagnosis and treatment of malaria, which is a medical emergency.
Historic bark-stripping drove destructive wild harvest of Andean Cinchona in the 18th and 19th centuries, and wild C. officinalis is now uncommon in parts of its native range. Commercial bark and quinine have long come from cultivated plantations (established in Java, India and elsewhere from smuggled seed), so cultivation-sourced bark is both available and the responsible choice. Cinchona is a South American native and is not on the United Plant Savers list (which tracks North American species); even so, buy plantation-grown, not wild-stripped, bark.
Not named in the canonical biblical texts and unknown to the classical Mediterranean writers (Dioscorides, Pliny): Cinchona is a New World tree, native to the Andes and used by Quechua-speaking peoples of South America. It entered European medicine only in the 1630s, carried back by Jesuit missionaries and popularized as Jesuit's bark, Peruvian bark, and the Countess's powder. Its tradition of origin is Andean, not Mediterranean or biblical.
The same herb can calm one person and wire another. Our free assessment reads your pattern across temperature, moisture and tone, then matches herbs to it.
Teaching children at home? Eden's Table builds a full herbalism curriculum around plants like this one.
