The ‘ elixir of cinchona (or elixir of cinchona ) is a medicinal preparation made ‘‹’‹from extracts alcoholic bark China calisaia originally used between the end of the eighteenth and mid-nineteenth century, as a drug in the fight against malaria . With the gradual disappearance of the disease from ‘ Europe lost its status as the elixir of medicine to become, in modern times, simple bitter digestive.