Hypertext Webster Gateway: "quassia"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
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.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
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: {bitterwood}, {Quassia amara}]
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