cascarin

Cascarin is a name that has appeared in scattered phytochemical and historical texts but is not a widely recognized chemical entity in current reference works. In many cases, cascarin has been used to refer to a constituent of cascarilla bark, a plant tradition­ally used as a bitter tonic and stimulant. However, the identity of cascarin is unclear, and different sources have applied the name to different substances or to a proposed compound without reproducible validation.

Because cascarin lacks a stable, widely accepted definition, there is no consistently reported structure, CAS number, or systematic IUPAC name associated with the term in major databases. The term has occasionally appeared in older or less formal literature, and may reflect early phytochemical reporting where compound names were provisional or provisional classifications were used.

Modern phytochemistry generally avoids using a single unqualified name for diverse constituents of cascarilla bark, instead cataloging compounds by specific structures (for example, terpenes and other essential oil components) with clear nomenclature. When cascarin is encountered in a text, readers should verify the primary source to determine whether it refers to a particular compound, a class of related substances, or a misnomer.

See also: Cascarilla, Croton eluteria, Phytochemistry, Bitter principles, Essential oil.