barbasco

[bahr-bas-koh, -bah-skoh]

noun, plural bar·bas·cos.

a shrub or small tree, Jacquinia barbasco, of tropical America, the source of a substance used to stun fish so they can be caught easily.
any similar plant yielding a substance that stuns or kills fish.
the fish-stunning or fish-killing substance obtained from these plants.

Origin of barbasco

1855–60; < American Spanish, said to be alteration of verbasco mullein < Latin verbascum

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for barbasco

Historical Examples of barbasco

They catch fish with bone hooks, seines, spears, and by poisoning the water with barbasco.
The Andes and the Amazon
James Orton
The Savanerics poison pools with pounded leaves of the barbasco, and thus obtain fish without much labor.
The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume 1
Hubert Howe Bancroft