Quassia
name: label: maker
content: George Washington University. School of Pharmacy
notes: label: Description
content: Quassia (1692-1787) was an obeah (healer) from the Guinea region of West Africa who was enslaved and taken to Surinam, a Dutch sugar colony on the Caribbean coast of South America. While investigating local plants with medicinal properties, Quassia learned of a tree that when, when made into an infusion, promoted appetite and assisted digestion. Daniel Rolander, a Swedish botanist who visited Surinam in the 1750s, met Quassia and acquired some samples of this tree. These samples eventually reached Carl Linnaeus, in Stockholm, and that noted botanist named the tree Quassia. Nineteenth century medical texts touted the benefits of ingesting quasia, or water infused with quassia.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of George Washington University, School of Pharmacy; Accession 259201 (1964)
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.M-10904.033
label: accession number
content: 259201
label: catalog number
content: M-10904.033
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Crude Drug
label: Other Terms
content: Crude Drug; Materia Medica; Drugs; Vegetable; Wood
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: quassia (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 15 cm x 7 cm x 7 cm; 5 29/32 in x 2 3/4 in x 2 3/4 in