Trichilia
in botany, the typical genus of Trichilieæ. Trees or shrubs with unequally pinnate, rarely trifoliolate leaves; flowers in axillary panicles; calyx four or five cleft; petals four or five overlapping; stamens 8 or 10, united into a tube; fruit capsular, three-celled; seeds, two in each cell. Known species about 20, the majority from America, the remainder from Africa. The bark of Trichilia emetica, called by the Arabs roka and elcaija, is a violent purgative and emetic. The Arab women mix the fruits with the perfumes used for washing their hair; the seeds are made into an ointment with sesamum oil, and used as a remedy for the itch. T. cathartica is also a purgative. T. moschata, a Jamaica plant, has an odor of musk wood. T. catigoa, now Moschoxylon catigoa, the catigua of Brazil, stains leather a bright yellow.