Quassia amara

taxobox
name = "Quassia amara"


image_caption = "Quassia amara" from Koehler's "Medicinal-Plants" (1887)
regnum = Plantae
unranked_divisio = Angiosperms
unranked_classis = Eudicots
unranked_ordo = Rosids
ordo = Sapindales
familia = Simaroubaceae
genus = "Quassia"
species = "Q. amara"
binomial = "Quassia amara"
binomial_authority = L.|

"Quassia amara" is a species in the genus "Quassia", with some botanists treating it as the sole species in the genus. It is a shrub or rarely a small tree, growing to 3 m tall (rarely 8 m), native to Brazil. The leaves are compound and alternate, 15-25 cm long, and pinnate with 3-5 leaflets, the leaf rachis being winged. The flowers are produced in a panicle 15-25 cm long, each flower 2.5-3.5 cm long, bright red on the outside, and white inside. The fruit is a small drupe 1-1.5 cm long. "Q. amara" is widely planted outside its native range.

Uses

It is famous and used for the bitterwood or quassia, its heartwood, used as a febrifuge; this contains quassin, a bitter-tasting substance (it is, in fact, the bitterest substance found in nature). [ [http://www.puralibre.com/html/eng_quassia.html http://www.puralibre.com/html/eng_quassia.html] ] Extracts of "Q. amara" bark containing quassinoids are used as insecticides, being particularly useful against aphids on crop plants. [Lewis, W.H. and M.P.F. Elvin-Lewis (2003). "Medical Botany". Hoboken: Wiley. page 598.]

References