Quassia

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [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}]