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.

Roget 395: unsavoriness etc. adj.; amaritude^†; acrimony, acridity (bitterness) 392.2; roughness etc. (sour) 397; acerbity, austerity; gall and wormwood, rue, quassia^†, aloes; marah^†; sickener^†.    ... show more

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: bitterwood, Quassia amara.