1. 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
   "The bright scarlet flowers of the quassia tree attract hummingbirds";
   - bitterwood, Quassia amara
    
2. 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
   "Quassia was traditionally used to treat intestinal parasites"

Derived forms: quassias

Type of: bitterwood tree, organic compound

Part of: genus Quassia

Encyclopedia: Quassia