quassia

Definitions of quassia

1. noun

   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
   synonyms: Quassia amara, bitterwood

   type of:

   bitterwood tree

   any of various trees or shrubs of the family Simaroubaceae having wood and bark with a bitter taste
2. noun

   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
   types:

   Jamaica quassia

   similar to the extract from Quassia amara

   type of:

   organic compound

   any compound of carbon and another element or a radical