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Jesuit's Bark, also called Peruvian Bark, is the historical name
of the most celebrated specific remedy for all forms of malaria.
It is so named because it was obtained from the bark of several
species of the genus Cinchona, of the Rubiaceae family, that
have been discovered at different times and are indigenous in
the Western Andes of South America and were first described and
introduced by Jesuit priests who did missionary work in Peru.
Other terms referring to this preparation and its source were
"Jesuit's Tree", "Jesuit's Powder" and "Pulvis Patrum".
Medicinal uses  Formerly, the bark itself, prepared in different
forms, was used as a drug, but later in the 19th and early 20th
centuries, natural harvesting of immense quantities formed the
base of the production of cinchona alkaloids. This industry was
carried on principally in Germany, and the Dutch and English
cinchona plantations in Java,