Quassiae lignum

Quasslae lignum Quassia wood Quassia amara L. SURINAM Picrasma excelsa PLANCH. Simarubaceae MD Secotriterpenes (simariibalides) -0.25% quassin, neoquassin and 18-hydroxy-quassin (0.1%-0J.5%). Bl of the drug, 40000-50000 Bl of quassin/neoquassin, 17 x 10 Fig. 10... 

Quassia. Quassia. Quassia excelsa. W. II. 569. Lignum. The wood. 

Lignum—wood, which consists of the woody part inside the cambium in plants with secondary growth. The term is not always botanically correct, e.g. in Quassiae lignum, where the thin bark is also present. 

QUASSIA, Quassiac lignum L. is the wood from Quassia amara L., or Picrasma excelsa Planchon, family Simarubaceae. (Fig. 8)... 

QUASSIA, Quassias lignum is dealt with in the section A09 B (Amara). It is used as an anthelmintic in cluster for treatment of oxyuris. 

Fig. lOA Quassiae lignum (1) extract shows the bitter-tasting quassin (Tl) as a prominent quenching zone at R — 0.65 in UV-254nm. 

Under the name of quassia or quassia wood Quassiae lignum), two indiscriminate species were then sold in Europe Quassia amara (mainly root, wood and stems) and Picrasma excelsa (Sw.) Planch, (formerly Picraena excelsa (Sw.) Lindley) or Jamaican quassia (trunk wood) [17,18, 20]. Quassia wood was initially used as an antiseptic, for meat preservation and as antipyretic. But because of its bitter principles its main recommendation was as a digestive and tonic [17, 21]. Q. amara was rapidly registered in various European pharmacopoeias, alone or with other Simaroubaceae species with the same reputation, such as Picrasma excelsa or Simarouba amara Aubl. [22-25]. The reputation of quassia wood then spread to the United States, where the medicinal use of cups mostly made of Q. amara wood became popular [26]. Meanwhile, a few Simaroubaceae were registered in North American official pharmaceutical documents, such as the King s American Dispensatory [27] or the United States Dispensatory [28]. 

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