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Quassia | | Name : | Quassia | | Botanical : | Picraena excelsa | | Synonyms : | Bitterash
Bitterbark
Bitterquassia
Bitterwood
Loftyquassia
Quassiabark
Quassiawood
| | Family : | Simarubeae | | Parts Used : | Wood, bark | | Habitat : | A native of tropical America and the West Indies. A small tree nativeof Surinam and Guiana being introduced to the West Indies. | | Description : | A tree growing 50 to 100 feet, erect stem over 3 feet in diameter. Bark smooth and greyish. Leaves alternate, unequally pinnate, leaflets opposite, oblong, acuminate, and unequal at the base. Flowers small pale yellowish green, blooming October and November. Fruit three drupes size of a pea (maturing its fruit December and January), black, shining, solitary, globose, with a thin shell. The wood of this tree furnishes the Quassia of commerce. It is imported in large logs varying from a foot or more in diameter and 1 to 8 feet in length, occasionally much bigger, then it is split into quarters, retaining a friable and feebly attached cortex which has the same medicinal qualities as the wood, which is very tough, close grained and white, but changes to yellow on contact with the air. It is odourless and very bitter, the bark is thin and dark brown or thick greyish brown transversed by reticulating lines.
Quassia Amara, or Surinan Quassia, as found in commerce, is in much smaller billets than the Jamaica Quassia, and is used in its place on the Continent, and is easily recognized from the Jamaica one, which it closely resembles, by its medullary rays, which are only one cell wide, and contain no calcium oxalate. | | Constituents : | Volatile oil, quassin, gummy extractive pectin, woody fibre, tartrate and sulphate of lime, chlorides of calcium, and sodium, various salts such as oxalate and ammoniacal salt, nitrate of potassa and sulphate of soda. Quassia, U.S.P., may be either Jamaica or Surinan Quassia. | | Uses : | Quassia, found in the shops in the form of chips or raspings, has no smell but an intense bitter taste, which will always distinguish the pure drug from adulterations; the infusion of these by persalt of iron gives a bluish-black colour, but as the blue Quassia chips contain no tannic acid, no result is produced in the infusion. Quassia wood is a pure bitter tonic and stomachic; it is also a vermicide and slight narcotic; it acts on flies and some of the higher animals as a narcotic poison. It is a valuable remedy in convalescence, after acute disease and in debility and atonic dyspepsia; an antispasmodic in fever. Having no tannic acid, it is frequently given with chalybeates and therefore can be preseribed with salts of iron; as an aromatic bitter stomachic it acts in the same way as calumba. In small doses Quassia increases the appetite large doses act as an irritant and cause vomiting; its action probably lessens putrefaction in the stomach, and prevents the formation of acid substances during digestion. A decoction used as an injection will move ascarides; for an enema for this purpose, 3 parts Quassia to 1 part mandrake root are used, and to each ounce of the mixture, 1 fluid drachm of asafoetida or diluted carbolic acid is added; for a child up to three years, 2 fluid ounces are injected into the rectum twice daily. Cups made of the wood and filled with liquid will in a few hours become thoroughly impregnated and this drink makes a powerful tonic. The infusion is made by macerating in cold water for twelve hours 3 drachmsof the rasped Quassia to 1 pint of cold water, 2 OZ. of the infusion alone, or with ginger tea, taken three times a day, proves very useful for feeble emaciated people with impaired digestive organs. The extract can be made by evaporating the decoction to a pilular consistence, and taken in 1 grain doses, three or four times daily, this will be found less obnoxious to the stomach than the infusion or decoction. Quassia with sulphuric acid acts as a cure for drunkenness, by destroying the appetite for alcoholics. | | Dosage : | Infusion: steep 1 tsp. quassia wood in 1 cup boiling water.Take 1 cup per day. Also, an infusion may be made by 1 oz. of woodchips or shavings in 1 qt. cold water; let stand for 12 hours; thedose is about 1/2 tsp. 3 times a day. A little ginger, cloves, lemonpeel or warm aromatic may be added to render the infusion more palatable.
Tincture: a dose is from 2 to 5 drops. | | Myths : | Quassia is a common component of insecticides.
A pure bitter with no sensible odor, Quassia cups were once verypopular, and obtainable in drug stores. They were a sort of woodencup or goblet, make of Quassia wood, for the purpose of drinking outof, to obtain the properties of the wood, which is so bitter, andyields its properties so readily to water, that if water is allowedto remain a few minutes in the cup, it will become quite bitter. Whatis most singular, this bitter principle seems almost inexhaustible.Quassia chips are used to discourage thumb sucking among children.The decoction is applied to the thumb or finger usually sucked. Renewapplications according to persistence of the child. Unlike Capsicum,which is sometimes used in preparations to discourage thumb sucking,tea of quassia chips will not burn the eyes when the child happensto come in such contact.
Quassia chips, an intense bitter, is used in aperitifs and sometimesas a substitute for hops in making beer. In Europe it is used in tonicwines.
The generic name Quassia is derived from a man named Quassi of Surinam,who employed the wood with uncommon success as a secret remedy inthe malignant endemic fevers which frequently prevails in Surinam.He sold the secret to Daniel Rolander, a Swede, who in 1756 took specimensof the wood to Stockholm, and shortly afterwards it became highlyextolled throughout Europe, and it has been prescribed by numerouseminent doctors as an excellent stomachic tonic. The whole plant;root, wood, and bark, is intensely bitter.
Quassia is used in hair lotions. An old-fashioned plant spray todrive off plant lice was made with a strong decoction of Quassia mixedwith liquid soap. A strong infusion sweetened and placed in a sauceris used to kill flies. This is harmless to house pets.
Steep 1 pint of quassia chips for 1 hour or more in a gallon of hotwater. Add to this 1 pint of softened strong laundry soap and anothergallon of water. Beat until you have strong suds. Add 1 tsp. of keroseneand demulsify thoroughly. Then add another two gallons of water andapply with a good brass syringe through a fine nozzle. This is a suremealybug killer.
To repel gnats, put a handful of Quassia chips into a bowl of coldwater, leaving for 12 hours or longer. Bottle, and for use, spongethe exposed skin with the liquid. The bitter taste is a preventive. | | Sold : | Tincture or powder |
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