Also -ayba, -ayva. [a. Sp. and Pg. copaiba, ad. Braz. cupauba.] A balsam or resinous juice of aromatic odor and acrid taste, obtained from various S. American trees or shrubs of the genus Copaifera; used in medicine and the arts.
1712. E. Cooke, Voy. S. Sea, 255. Copayba, a Balsam.
1775. Clayton, in Phil. Trans., LXVI. 105. A gum … of the smell and taste of balsam capavia.
1831. J. Davies, Manual Mat. Med., 202. Essential Oil of Copaiba, is obtained by distillation.
1863–82. Watts, Dict. Chem., s.v. Balsam, Brazilian copaiba is light yellow … of various degrees of consistence, from mobile to syrupy. It has a peculiar, aromatic, disagreeable odour, and a persistently bitter and irritating taste.
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 503.
b. attrib., as copaiba resin, tree; copaiba balsam (see above); copaiba oil, a volatile, mobile oil obtained by the distillation of copaiba balsam with water.
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), 136. The copaiva tree is a native of South America and the Spanish West India Islands. Ibid. The copaiba balsam of the shops is procured by wounding the tree.
1863–72. Watts, Dict. Chem., Copaiba balsam consists of several resins dissolved in a volatile oil…. Copaiba balsam is used in the preparation of lac-varnishes and tracing paper; but its chief application is in medicine, as a remedy in diseases of the urinary passages.
