[cin.cho.na] n [NL, genus name, fr. the countess of Chinchon d. 1641 wife of the Peruvian viceroy] (1786) 1: any of a genus (Cinchona) of So. American trees and shrubs of the madder family
2: the dried bark of a cinchona (as C. ledgeriana) containing alkaloids (as quinine) and formerly used as a specific in malaria