ABSTRACT
Since the dawn of time, people have looked to nature for their basic needs, especially remedies. Herbal medicine includes the use of plants as medicines to cure illness and improve people’s overall health and wellness. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 60% of people globally and 80% of people in developing countries primarily rely on herbal medication. The effective alkaloids of quinine, quinidine, cinchonine, and cinchonidine are the key characteristics of Cinchona genus (Rubiaceae family), which is both economically and medicinally significant. It has a variety of medical therapeutic characteristics, including antidiabetic, anticancer, and antimalarial ones. This chapter explains the antimalarial, traditional, and further potential uses of many cinchona species. Cinchona contains alkaloids, flavonoids, and polyphenols that are all quite helpful in the treatment of malaria. The bark of most Cinchona species, including Cinchona calisaya Wedd, is beneficial in treating a variety of ailments, including inflammatory and microbial infections, various malignancies, and other inflammatory conditions. Accordingly, only the bark of cinchona is suggested because of its antimalarial, anticancer, anti-obesity, antioxidant, and antidiabetic properties.
