QUASSIA • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Quassia

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/kwˈɑʃiə/ Listen

Quassia

noun

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.

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. Synonyms: bitterwood, Quassia amara.

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Etymology of 'Quassia'

Related searches:

quassia family

Jamaica quassia

genus Quassia

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"Quassia" Quotes from Famous Books

... for two or three days it becomes quite black and shrivelled like pepper. It must be used fresh, and whilst its mixture with water produces fermentation. The bark of Datisca cannabina also dyes yellow. It contains a bitter principle, like quassia. ...

— The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom • P. L. Simmonds

... you. And your appetite, how is it?' 'O, don't speak of it! I can't get anything down.' 'My soul, if you don't eat you'll not be able to keep up.' 'But, my heart, what would you do if the mouthfuls stuck in your throat?' 'Take a little quassia; ... but, dost thou remember, once—?' 'Yes, I remember; but once was once,' ... and so forth, and so forth. Then some evening, if a priest came in, we could take a hand at whist with a dummy, and so live on to the age of crutches in a passion whose phases are confided to the apothecary ...

— Modern Italian Poets • W. D. Howells

Words linked to "Quassia" : Jamaica quassia, bitterwood tree, organic compound, Quassia amara, quassia family