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lignum vitae
(redirected from Guaiacum)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Wikipedia 0.03 sec.
lignum vitae (lĭg`nəm vī`tē) [Lat.,=wood of life], tropical American evergreen tree of the genus Guaiacum. The hard, dense, and extremely durable wood, obtained chiefly from G. officinale and G. sanctum, is used for ship construction, butcher blocks, and other articles requiring strength and hardness. The trees are cultivated to some extent in Florida and California for ornament. They also yield guaiacum, a gum resin resin, any of a class of amorphous solids or semisolids. Resins are found in nature and are chiefly of vegetable origin. They are typically light yellow to dark brown in color; tasteless; odorless or faintly aromatic; translucent or transparent; brittle, fracturing
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 used in certain drugs. Various other hardwoods of Australasia (e.g., the acacia and eucalyptus) are also called lignum vitae. Lignum vitae is classified in several orders in the division Magnoliophyta Magnoliophyta (măg'nōlēŏf`ətə)
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, class Magnoliopsida, order Sapindales, family Zygophyllaceae.
lignum vitae
1. either of two zygophyllaceous tropical American trees, Guaiacum officinale or G. sanctum, having blue or purple flowers
2. the heavy resinous wood of either of these trees, which is used in machine bearings, casters, etc.: formerly thought to have medicinal properties


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Saxena, a plant physiologist at the University of Guelph in Ontario, is working with Costa Rican scientists to find a trick for culturing their native Guaiacum sanctum.
Thus there was a relatively high incidence of well-to-do patients among the hospital's clientele in the years when guaiacum (or Holy Wood, widely regarded as a panacea for mal francese) was administered.
And how could learned medicine account for the fact that two of the most popular remedies, guaiacum wood imported from the New World and mercury salves, originated among unschooled empirics?
 
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