Meaning

noun a bitter compound used as an insecticide and tonic and vermifuge; extracted from the wood and bark of trees of the genera Quassia and Picrasma

noun handsome South American shrub or small tree having bright scarlet flowers and yielding a valuable fine-grained yellowish wood; yields the bitter drug quassia from its wood and bark

originFrom the genus name translingual Quassia, named after Surinamese physician and botanist Graman Quassi.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0