Brucea

Brucea, a genus of Terebinthaceæ (q.v.), named after the famous Abyssinian traveller.—B. antidysenterica or ferruginea is an Abyssinian shrub, the leaves of which are said to be tonic, astringent, and useful in dysentery. Those of B. sumatrana, a native of the Indian Archipelago, China, &c., possess the same medicinal properties. They are intensely bitter, their properties resembling those of Quassia (q.v.).—The Abyssinian species acquired a factitious importance in the beginning of the 19th century, from a mistaken belief that it produced the dangerous False Angostura Bark (see ANGOSTURA BARK), and in this belief the name Brucin (q.v.) was given to an alkaloid really produced by the Nux Vomica (q.v.) and other species of Strychnos (q.v.).