Man·na n.
 1. Script. The food supplied to the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness of Arabia; hence, divinely supplied food.
 2. Bot. A name given to lichens of the genus Lecanora, sometimes blown into heaps in the deserts of Arabia and Africa, and gathered and used as food; called also manna lichen.
 3. Bot. & Med. A sweetish exudation in the form of pale yellow friable flakes, coming from several trees and shrubs and used in medicine as a gentle laxative, as the secretion of Fraxinus Ornus, and Fraxinus rotundifolia, the manna ashes of Southern Europe.
 Note: ☞ Persian manna is the secretion of the camel's thorn (see Camel's thorn, under Camel); Tamarisk manna, that of the Tamarisk mannifera, a shrub of Western Asia; Australian, manna, that of certain species of eucalyptus; Briançon manna, that of the European larch.
 Manna insect Zool, a scale insect (Gossyparia mannipara), which causes the exudation of manna from the Tamarix tree in Arabia.
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 man·ni·tol n.
 1. Chem. A white crystalline hexose (HO.CH2.(CHOH)4.CH2.OH) of a sweet taste obtained from a so-called manna, the dried sap of the flowering ash (Fraxinus ornus); -- called also mannite, and hydroxy hexane.  Cf. Dulcite.  It is used in pharmacy as excipient and diluent for solids and liquids.  It is also used as a food additive for anti-caking properties, or as a sweetener, and, illegally, to "cut" (dilute) illegal drugs such as cocaine or heroin.
 Syn: -- D-mannitol; manna sugar; cordycepic acid; Diosmol; Mannicol; Mannidex; Osmiktrol; Osmosal.
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 Fraxinus ornus
      n : southern Mediterranean ash having fragrant white flowers in
          dense panicles and yielding manna [syn: manna ash, flowering
          ash]