Quassia

Description

The wood from a shrub or small tree, Quassia amara, that has bright scarlet flowers and is native to the Caribbean islands and northern parts of South America. Quassia has a smooth, pale yellow color wood with a fine grain. The lightweight wood in durable, odorless, and very resistant to insects. Quassia wood is used for furniture. The extract from the quassia wood is used as an insecticide and an alcohol denaturant.

Synonyms and Related Terms

Quassia amara; bitterwood; bitter ash

Authority

• G.S.Brady, Materials Handbook, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1971 Comment: p. 648

• Richard S. Lewis, Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 10th ed., 1993

• Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia, Douglas M. Considine (ed.), Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1976

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The Merck Index, Martha Windholz (ed.), Merck Research Labs, Rahway NJ, 10th edition, 1983 Comment: entry 8208

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998