CINCHONA OFFICINALIS (Cinc. of.)

Botanical name : Cinchona officinalis Linn. Family: Rubiaceae

Synonyms : C. succirubra Pav. ex Klotzsch , C. condaminea Humb and Bonpl, C. calisaya Wedd., C. rubra L.

Common names : Hindi: Kunain Ka Pair; English: Peruvian bark; French: Quinquina; German: Chinarinde.

Description : A slender tree, 7 to 10 meter high, rough, brown, yellow within, with black and whitish marking on the bark. Leaves small, smooth, ovate-lanceolate; shining and reddish petioles. Flowers rosy.

Macroscopical : Stem bark quilled or curved pieces, up to 30 cm or more long and from about 2 to 6 mm thick; outer surface dull brown-grey or grey frequently bearing lichens and mosses; usually rough, being marked with transverse fissures varying in type, according to the species and often numerous; longitudinally either furrowed or wrinkled and fissured, exfoliation of the outer bark occurring in some varieties; inner surface striated and varying in colour, from pale-yellowish brown to deep reddish-brown; fracture short in the external layers and fibrous in the inner layers.

Microscopical : The diagnostic characters are thin walled cork cells; numerous isolated, yellowish, spindle-shaped, striated phloem fibres, upto 90 µ in diameter with conspicuous somewhat funnel shaped pits; small number of starch grain, about 6 to 10 µ in diameter from the parenchyma; parenchymatous idioblasts filled with microcrystals of calcium oxalate; very rare stone cells. The most important alkaloid is quinine.

Habitat : India (Nilgiris, Assam and Khasia hills) & Sikkim, at an elevation of 2,000 to 2,500 meter.

History and authority : Allen’s Encyclop. Mat. Med. Vol. III, 182, X 460.

Part used : Bark.

Preparation : (a) Mother Tincture φ Drug strength 1/10 Cinchona Officinalis in moderately coarse powder 100 g Purified Water 200 ml Strong Alcohol 824 ml to make one thousand millilitres of the Mother Tincture.

(b) Potencies: 2x and higher with Dispensing Alcohol.

(c) Trituration: 1x and higher to be triturated in accordance with the method, 6x may be converted to liquid 8x, 9x and higher with Dispensing Alcohol.

Old method : Class IV (Tincture)