Strip of rolled cinchona bark from the Government Cinchona Plantation, Darjeeling, displayed in Wellcome Cinchona Exhibition of 1930, India, 1860-1910

From 1862, the British Government of India set up cinchona plantations and factories to cultivate large amounts of cinchona bark for its malaria treating quinine. This specimen is from a plantation in Darjeeling. There are many types of cinchona bark. This is type is called Cinchona Calaysia.

The sample was originally at the Royal Botanic Gardens India Museums at Kew, England. The museum was founded by the East India Company in 1801 and closed in 1879. The sample was also exhibited at the Cinchona Tercentenary Exhibition by the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in 1930.