[a. Sp. cascarilla, dim. of cascara rind, bark. In F. cascarille.] The bitter aromatic bark of the plant Croton eleuteria, used as a tonic. Also called cascarilla bark.
1686. Lond. Gaz., No. 2186/1. 200 thousand pounds of the Bark of Trees, called Cascarilla.
1759. B. Stillingfl., trans. Beyerstein’s Physic, in Misc. Tracts (1762), 210. They use the cascarilla, which is certainly a very good medicine in shiverings.
1826. Good, Bk. Nat. (1834), I. 191. The cascarilla bark and castor oil are obtained from plants poisonous in some part or other.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 234.
Hence Cascarillin, a bitter substance (C12 H18 O4) obtained from cascarilla bark.
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 83. Cascarillin, a neutral, bitter, crystallizable principle.
