text: During World War II, the Japanese conquered Java and the United States lost access to the cinchona plantations that supplied war-critical quinine medication. Botanical expeditions called Cinchona Missions were launched between 1942 and 1944 to explore promising areas of South America in an effort to locate cinchona species that contained quinine and could be harvested for quinine production. As well as being ultimately successful in their primary aim, these expeditions also identified new species of plants and created a new chapter in international relations between the United States and other nations in the Americas.
  Chemistry
  Cinchona alkaloids
  The bark of trees in this genus is the source of a variety of alkaloids, the most familiar of which is quinine, an antipyretic (antifever) agent especially useful in treating malaria. For a while the extraction of a mixture of alkaloids from the cinchona bark, known in India as the cinchona febrifuge, was used. The alkaloid mixture or its sulphated form mixed in alcohol and sold as quinetum was however very bitter and caused nausea, among other side effects.
  Cinchona alkaloids include:
  cinchonine and cinchonidine (stereoisomers with R1 = vinyl, R2 = hydrogen)
  quinine and quinidine (stereoisomers with R1 = vinyl, R2 = methoxy)
  dihydroquinine and dihydroquinidine (stereoisomers with R1 = ethyl, R2 = methoxy)
  They find use in organic chemistry as organocatalysts in asymmetric synthesis.