decoction

decoction
    n 1: (pharmacology) the extraction of water-soluble drug
         substances by boiling
    

Decoction \De*coc"tion\, n. [F. d['e]coction, L. decoctio.]
   1. The act or process of boiling anything in a watery fluid
      to extract its virtues.
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            In decoction . . . it either purgeth at the top or
            settleth at the bottom.               --Bacon.
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   2. An extract got from a body by boiling it in water.
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            If the plant be boiled in water, the strained liquor
            is called the decoction of the plant. --Arbuthnot.
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            In pharmacy decoction is opposed to infusion, where
            there is merely steeping.             --Latham.
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DECOCTION, med. jurisp. The operation of boiling certain ingredients in a 
fluid, for the purpose of extracting the parts soluble at that temperature. 
Decoction also means the product of this operation. 
     2. In a case in which the indictment charged the prisoner with having 
administered to a woman a decoction of a certain shrub called savin, it 
appeared that the prisoner had administered an infusion (q.v.) and not a 
decoction; the prisoner's counsel insisted that he was entitled to an 
acquittal, on the ground that the medicine was misdescribed, but it was held 
that infusion and decoction are ejusdem generis, and that the variance was 
immaterial. 3 Camp. R. 74, 75. 
    

55 Moby Thesaurus words for "decoction":
      boil, boiling, brew, chemical solution, coction, combination,
      composition, concentrate, concentration, concoction, confection,
      decoctum, distillate, distillation, ebullience, ebulliency,
      ebulliometer, ebullition, elixir, essence, expression, extract,
      extraction, imbuement, impregnation, infiltration, infusion,
      instillation, instillment, interpenetration, leach, leachate,
      lixivium, marination, mixture, penetration, permeation, pervasion,
      pressing, purification, quintessence, refinement, rendering,
      rendition, saturation, seething, simmer, simmering, soaking,
      solution, spirit, squeezing, steeping, stewing, suffusion