ABSTRACT
Michaux originally recorded that the plant was “very useful in intermittent fever” in his North American Sylva of 1817-1818 (Porcher 1863, Taylor and Norman 2002). He learned that from either indigenous people or the Americans they had taught. The bitter bark, containing cinchonin, was used during the Civil War as a substitute for quinine in treating malaria (Millspaugh 1892, Mabberley 1997). Porcher (1863) recorded, “Dr. Law, of Georgia, cured six out of seven cases with it. It did not distress the stomach.” Later he noted, “In Georgia a handful of the bark is boiled in a quart of water till the liquid is reduced to one-half; the infusion is given.”
