Lilacin

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A bitter glycoside compound that was once isolated from the flowers and bark of the lilac plant
2. A bitter plant-derived glycoside chemical originally obtained from the lilac shrub and its blossoms
3. The bitter crystalline glycoside substance first extracted from lilac, studied in early plant chemistry

Etymology: Lilacin is a chemical name rather than an old literary word: it is formed from "lilac", the shrub, plus the suffix "-in", which chemists use to name certain plant-derived substances. Lilacin is a name for a glycoside found in the lilac plant, and the suffix signals that it is a substance isolated from it. The word therefore keeps the plant's name in full, so anyone who sees it can tell at once where the compound came from.