quassia (redirected from quassias)

quas·sia  (kwsh)

n.

1.

a. A tropical American shrub or small tree (Quassia amara) having bright scarlet flowers and yielding a valuable, lustrous, fine-grained, yellowish-white wood.

b. The wood of this plant.

2. A bitter substance obtained from the wood of this plant, used in medicine and as an insecticide.

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[New Latin, after Graman Quassi, an 18th-century Surinamese.]

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quassia [ˈkwɒʃə]

n

1. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Plants) any tree of the tropical American simaroubaceous genus Quassia, having bitter bark and wood

2. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Forestry) the bark and wood of Quassia amara and of a related tree, Picrasma excelsa, used in furniture making

3. (Medicine / Pharmacology) a bitter compound extracted from this bark and wood, formerly used as a tonic and anthelmintic, now used in insecticides

[from New Latin, named after Graman Quassi, a slave who discovered (1730) the medicinal value of the root]

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	quassia - 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 Jamaica quassia - similar to the extract from Quassia amara organic compound - any compound of carbon and another element or a radical
	2.	quassia - 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 bitterwood, Quassia amara bitterwood tree - any of various trees or shrubs of the family Simaroubaceae having wood and bark with a bitter taste genus Quassia - tropical trees and shrubs with pinnate leaves and large scarlet flowers; bark is medicinal