Mystery of how plants make a family of medicinal molecules has been solved

The cinchona alkaloids are a family of plant-derived compounds that include quinine, an antimalarial drug also used as the bittering ingredient in tonic water. The biosynthetic pathway in Cinchona plants that produces the scaffold for these important molecules has been mapped. The enzymes that produce cinchona alkaloid compounds, such as the antimalarial drug quinine, have been identified.