Showing posts with label and insecticidal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label and insecticidal. Show all posts

Friday, May 23, 2014

Medicinal Trees Quassia (Quassia amara ) expel parasites and reduce fever

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 189-365

The wood of this tree from Mexico and Central and South America has been an item of commerce since the mid-1700s. The wood’s bitter extractive, which has been relied on to expel parasites and reduce fever, is water soluble. Thus in the 1800s it frequently was turned into popular “bitter cups.” The substance also has uses as an insecticide.


The genus was named by Carolus Linnaeus who named it after the first botanist to describe it: the Surinamese freedman Graman Quassi. Q. amara is used as insecticide, in traditional medicine and as additive in the food industry.

Common Names
 
  • Bitter wood , 
  • picrasma , 
  • Jamaican quassia ( P. excelsa ), 
  • Surinam quassia ( Q. amara ), 
  • Amara species , 
  • Amargo , 
  • Surinam wood , 
  • ruda 

Origin

Q. amara is native to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Brasil, Peru, Venezuela, Suriname, Colombia, Argentina, French Guiana and Guyana. Q. amara is widely planted outside its native range.

Parts Used
 
Wood, leaves

Typical Preparations
 
Usually taken in the form of an infusion, in capsules, or tincture.

Medicinal Uses
  • treatment for measles, 
  • diarrhea, 
  • fever, and 
  • lice. 
  • Quassia has antibacterial, 
  • antifungal, 
  • antifertility, 
  • antitumor, 
  • antileukemic, and 
  • insecticidal actions as well
Traditionally Q. amara is used as a digestive, treat fever, against hair parasites (lice, fleas), and Mosquito larvae in ponds (and do not harm the fishes).
The component Simalikalactone D was identified as an antimalarial. The preparation of a tea out of young leafs is used traditionally in French Guyana.

In small doses Quassia increases the appetite large doses act as an irritant and cause vomiting;

A decoction used as an injection will move ascarides; for an enema for this purpose, 3 parts Quassia to 1 part mandrake root are used, and to each ounce of the mixture, 1 fluid drachm of asafoetida or diluted carbolic acid is added; for a child up to three years, 2 fluid ounces are injected into the rectum twice daily. 

Cups made of the wood and filled with liquid will in a few hours become thoroughly impregnated and this drink makes a powerful tonic.
 
The infusion is made by macerating in cold water for twelve hours 3 drachmsof the rasped Quassia to 1 pint of cold water, 2 OZ. of the infusion alone, or with ginger tea, taken three times a day, proves very useful for feeble emaciated people with impaired digestive organs.

The extract can be made by evaporating the decoction to a pilular consistence, and taken in 1 grain doses, three or four times daily, this will be found less obnoxious to the stomach than the infusion or decoction. Quassia with sulphuric acid acts as a cure for drunkenness, by destroying the appetite for alcoholics.

Dosing

Quassia wood has been used as a bitter tonic, with a typical oral dose of 500 mg.

Forestation
 
  • Seeds and cuttings can be used for propagation of Q. amara
  • Frost is not tolerated, but the plant is partially drought tolerant.
  • A large amount of indirect light is recommended.