[Abbreviated for querci-citron, f. L. quercus oak + CITRON. Named by Dr. Bancroft about 1784.] The black or dyer’s oak of N. America (Quercus tinctoria): also called quercitron oak. b. The inner bark of this, used as a yellow dye and in tanning: also quercitron bark.
1794. Bancroft, Philos. Perman. Colours, xii. The Quercitron bark … is one of the objects of a discovery, of which the use and application for dying, calico printing, &c. are exclusively vested in me … by an act of parliament passed in the 25th year of his present Majesty’s reign.
1852. Morfit, Tanning & Currying (1853), 100. The black, or quercitron oak, is a large tree found throughout the United States. Ibid., 101. The quercitron, so much used in dyeing, is obtained from the cellular integument.
attrib. 1823. Ure, Dict. Chem. (ed. 2), 398/1. Cloth … subjected to the quercitron bath.
Hence Quercitrein, a product of quercitrin. ? Obs. Quercitric a., derived from quercitrin, as in quercitric acid (Watts, Dict. Chem., 1868). Quercitrin, the yellow crystalline coloring matter of quercitron bark.
1833. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7), VIII. 320/2. To this colouring matter Chevreul has given the name of quercitrin. Ibid., 321/1. Yellow crystals possessing the characters of quercitrin.
1841. Penny Cycl., XIX. 211/1. The tannin which quercitrin contains … gives a green colour with peroxide of iron. Ibid. (1845), Suppl. I. 349/2. On boiling a solution of quercitrin, it becomes turbid, and deposits a quantity of small acicular crystals of quercitrein.
