Quassia QUAS'SIA, n. A plant, or rather a genus of plants of three
species, the amara, simaruba, and excelsa or polygama, natives of South
America and of some of the isles of the West Indies, and possessing
valuable medicinal qualities.
quassia
n 1: a bitter compound used as an insecticide and tonic and
vermifuge; extracted from the wood and bark of trees of the
genera Quassia and Picrasma
2: handsome South American shrub or small tree having bright
scarlet flowers and yielding a valuable fine-grained
yellowish wood; yields the bitter drug quassia from its wood
and bark [syn: quassia, bitterwood, Quassia amara]
quassia nounEtymology: New Latin, genus name of a South American tree, from
Quassi 18th century Surinam slave who discovered the medicinal value
of quassia Date: 1770
a drug from the heartwood and bark of various tropical trees of the ailanthus
family used especially as a bitter tonic and remedy for roundworms in
children and as an insecticide
quassia n. 1 an evergreen tree, Quassia amara, native to S. America. 2 the wood, bark, or root of this tree, yielding a bitter medicinal tonic and insecticide. Etymology: G. Quassi,
18th-c. Surinam slave, who discovered its medicinal properties
quassia
ˈkwɔʃə n. 1 an evergreen tree, Quassia amara, native to
S. America. 2 the wood, bark, or root of this tree, yielding a bitter
medicinal tonic and insecticide. [G. Quassi, 18th-c. Surinam slave, who
discovered its medicinal properties]
Quassia \Quas"si*a\, n. [NL. From the name of a negro, Quassy,
or Quash, who prescribed this article as a specific.]
The wood of several tropical American trees of the order
Simarube[ae], as Quassia amara, Picr[ae]na excelsa, and
Simaruba amara. It is intensely bitter, and is used in
medicine and sometimes as a substitute for hops in making
beer.
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