Crossword clues for quassia
The Collaborative International Dictionary
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.
Wiktionary
n. 1 Any of several tropic trees, of the genus (taxlink Quassia genus noshow=1), having scarlet flowers. 2 The bitter substance quassin extracted from its bark.
WordNet
n. 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 [syn: bitterwood, Quassia amara]
Wikipedia
Quassia ( or ) is a flora genus in the family Simaroubaceae. Its size is disputed; some botanists treat it as consisting of only one species, Quassia amara from tropical South America, while others treat it in a wide circumscription as a pantropical genus containing up to 40 species of trees and shrubs. The genus was named after a former slave from Surinam, Graman Quassi in the eighteenth century. He discovered the medicinal properties of the bark of Quassia amara.
Broader treatments of the genus include the following and other species:
- Quassia africana
- Quassia amara
- Quassia arnhemensis Craven & Dunlop- Australia
- Quassia bidwillii
- Quassia indica
- Quassia sp. 'Moonee Creek' - Australia
- Quassia sp. 'Mount Nardi' - Australia
- Quassia silvestris
- Quassia undulata
It is the source of the quassinoids quassin and neo-quassin.
Usage examples of "quassia".
Quassia or Quashy, the black horse, and Caustic, the old bay, with whom he jogged round the village.
The Cedron of commerce is not unlike a large blanched almond - it is often yellowish, hard and compact, but can be easily cut, it is intensely bitter, not unlike quassia in taste and has no odour.