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quassiamore about quassia

quassia


  2  definitions  found 
 
  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  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  quassia 
  n  1:  a  bitter  compound  used  as  an  insecticide  and  tonic  and 
  vermifuge;  extracted  from  the  wood  an  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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