text: Traditional medicine Whether cinchona bark was used in any traditional medicines within Andean Indigenous groups when it first came to notice by Europeans is unclear. Since its first confirmed medicinal record in the early 17th century, it has been used as a treatment for malaria. This use was popularised in Europe by the Spanish colonisers of South America. The bark contains alkaloids, including quinine and quinidine. Cinchona is the only economically practical source of quinine, a drug that is still recommended for the treatment of falciparum malaria.
  Europe
  Italian botanist Pietro Castelli wrote a pamphlet noteworthy as being the first Italian publication to mention the Cinchona species. By the 1630s (or 1640s, depending on the reference), the bark was being exported to Europe. In the late 1640s, the method of use of the bark was noted in the Schedula Romana. The Royal Society of London published in its first year (1666) "An account of Dr. Sydenham's book, entitled, Methodus curandi febres . . ."
  English King Charles II called upon Robert Talbor, who had become famous for his miraculous malaria cure. Because at that time the bark was in religious controversy, Talbor gave the king the bitter bark decoction in great secrecy. The treatment gave the king complete relief from the malaria fever. In return, Talbor was offered membership of the prestigious Royal College of Physicians.