fecula
See also: fécula
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin faecula, diminutive of faex (“residue, dregs”).
Pronunciation
Noun
fecula (countable and uncountable, plural feculas or feculae)
- Starchy sediment extracted from plants, especially those which are used as food.
- 1843, Robley Dunglison, “Demulcents”, in General Therapeutics and Materia Medica, Adapted for a Medical Text Book. [...] In Two Volumes, volume II, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, →OCLC, section VIII (Agents whose Action is Prominently Mechanical), page 396:
- Arrowroot is the fecula of Maran′ta arundina′cea or West Indian arrowroot; Sex. Syst. Monandria Monogynia; Nat. Ord. Marantaceæ; a plant, which is a native of South America and the West Indies, where it is largely cultivated in gardens and provision grounds. The tubers or roots are beaten into a pulp, stirred with cold water, removing the fibres with the hand; the milky juice is passed through a fine sieve, and the starch is allowed to subside in the strained fluid. The fecula is then washed, and dried without heat. This is the Arrowroot.