Description

Botanical name: Zanthoxylum americanum

Origin: USA

lemon scent, bitter taste

Prickly ash, also known as Szechuan pepper and toothache tree, is a small, North American species of tree in the Rutaceae, or yellow wood family. The leaves and fruit of the tree have a lemony scent, although the latter an also the bark deliver a bitter, acrid taste. Prickly ash bark, which contains a crystalline substance called xanthoxcylin, is an ingredient in traditional liquid extracts known as herbal bitters. The bark is also decocted to produce bitter tonics and teas or powdered to make various topical preparations.