I 
- 35 - 
All parts of the plant are very "bitter, particularly 
the ■i)ark of the root, the flowers, and the seed?-.. It possesses 
all the f-ood qualities of cinchona, and fevers which resisted 
the action cf Peruvian park have often yielded to infusion 
of the leaves of "Cassie". The tealike infusion of the flowers 
is more efficacious than the leaves, Jlccording to a letter 
from de Cromelin and de riedmond in 1772, the doctors of 
Surinajn use only the fresh root and employ it less as a 
felsrifugc than as a stomachic in tho slow fevers, which 
commonly follow acute fevers, 
PERSIRA, J. . (91) 
TI-IE ELEIvES^ITS OF I/IATIHIA MEDIC A AKD TEERAPEUTICS, 2 v. 
Philadelphia. 1852-1854. 
Sinaruha amaja AxilDlet, ('bitter si/aaruba or mountain 
dcjison) and Picraena excel sa Lindley (the lofty hitterwood 
tree) are doscri'bed rnd their medicinal use discxisscd. 
•Wright tolls us that no insect will live near ca'binct work 
made of P. (Q uassia ) e xcel sa . It has long "been known that 
an aqueous infusion of this sw.hstancc is cji excellent fly 
poison (v. 2, pp. 871-875). 
PHAPJvIACEUTICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRIT All?. (92) 
THE BRITISH PHARi^ACEUTICAL CODEX, 1768 pp. London 1934 
Quassia wood (quassiae lignum) is ohtained from the trunk 
and "branches of Picraena. e xcels a Lindl. [ Pier asm a _c, Swartz, 
(Plaiichon)] , a tree indigenous to Jamaica, The wood is imported 
in "billets and logs, which arc cut into chips and kiln dried. 
The chief constituent is picrasmin or quassin, a mixture of 
two homologous crystalline, "bitter principles,^- andp-picrasmin, 
Quasoia is a pure "bitter, employed to increase the appetite, 
Ao. infusion of quassia (l:2C) or "liquor quassiae concontratus", 
mixed with an equol quantity of water, is used a.3 an injection 
for the threadworms of children, A similar solution painted 
on the skin keeps away small insects, 
Quassin may "be obtained "by exhausting Jrniaica quassia wood with 
50 percent alcohol, neutralizing with magnesia, r;oking acid with 
tartaric acid, and removing tho ethyl alcohol "by distillation. 
The residue is shaken with chlorofoi'^, the latter evaporated to 
a syrup and dissolved in a mixture cf equal vnlumcs of a"bsolutc 
alcohol and ether; evaporated and dissolved in little absolute 
alcohol. Cover this concentrated solution with a layer of 
ether and set aside to crystallize, Rccr;^/- stall ize from alcohol. 
A mixture of two homologous, crystalline, bitter principles. 
d^-picrasm.in, ^^^^^q^iq^' ^' ?• 204° rjidj^ -picrasmin, ^35^450^0' ^'^» P* 
