Sassafras

This article is about the Sassafras tree of the Northern Hemisphere. For other uses of the term, see Sassafras (disambiguation).

Sassafras
Sassafras albidum, Wanaque, New Jersey
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae (unranked) Magnoliids Order: Laurales Family: Lauraceae Genus: Sassafras
Species
S. albidum S. randaiense S. tzumu

Sassafras is the common name and genus name for a group of deciduous trees in the flowering plant family Lauraceae, and in particular Sassafras albidum of the eastern United States. In general, three species are recognized, characterized by thick, deeply furrowed bark, tiny yellow five-petaled flowers, blue-black fruit, and three distinct leaf patterns on the same plant, with unlobed oval, bilobed mitten shaped, and trilobed leaves. There is an aromatic odor to the leaves, bark, and root.

Sassafras (S. albidum) is particularly well-known for for an essential oil in the root bark (and other plant parts), which was once widely used to flavor root beer, as well as used medicinally and as a fragrance in perfumes and soaps. The plant also was used to brew a popular tea (sassafras tea). However, in the 1960s it was determined that the chief component of the essential oil, safrole, is a health hazard even when used in small amounts internally, and it has been banned as a food and flavoring additive in many countries, including the United States.

There are some other unrelated trees with the common name of sassafras outside of the Sassafras genus, including Oliveri cortex (black sassafras), Magnolia glauca (swamp sassafras), Umbellularia californica (California sassafras), and Antherosperma moschatus (Australian sassafras), among others. This article will be limited to members of the Sassafras genus.

Overview and description

The genus Sassafras is part of the laurel family, Lauraceae, which comprises a group of flowering plants included in the order Laurales. There typically are three recognized extant species in Sassafras (Nie et al. 2007; FNA), native to eastern North America and eastern Asia.

Sassafras trees grow from 15 to 35 meters (50–120 feet) tall and 70 to 150 centimeters (2.5–6 feet) in diameter, with many slender branches, and smooth, orange-brown bark. The branching is sympodial (a specialized lateral growth pattern in which the apical meristem is terminated). The bark of the mature trunk is thick, red-brown, and deeply furrowed. The wood is light, hard and sometimes brittle. All parts of the plants are very fragrant.

The species are unusual in having three distinct leaf patterns on the same plant, unlobed oval (entire), two-lobed (mitten-shaped), and three lobed (three pronged; rarely the leaves can be five-lobed). They have smooth margins and grow 7 to 20 centimeters (2.75-8 inches) long by 5 to 10 centimeters (2-4 inches) broad. The young leaves and twigs are quite mucilaginous, and produce a citrus-like scent when crushed.

The tiny, yellow flowers are five-petaled and bloom in the spring; they are dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate trees. The fruit are blue-black, egg-shaped, 1 centimeter (0.4 inches) long, produced on long, red-stalked cups, and mature in late summer (FNA).

The name Sassafras, which was applied by the botanist Nicolas Monardes in the sixteenth century, is said to be a corruption of the Spanish word for saxifrage.

Species

• Sassafras albidum (Nuttall) Nees - Sassafras, white sassafras, red sassafras or silky sassafras. Eastern North America, from southernmost Ontario, Canada through the eastern United States south to central Florida, and west to southern Iowa and eastern Texas.
• Sassafras tzumu (Hemsl.) Hemsl. - Chinese sassafras or Tzumu. Central and southwestern China. It differs from S. albidum in the leaves being more frequently three-lobed, the lobes having a tapered acuminate apex (not rounded to weakly acute).
• Sassafras randaiense (Hayata) Rehd. - Taiwanese sassafras. Taiwan. Treated by some botanists in a distinct genus as Yushunia randaiensis (Hayata) Kamikoti (Kamikoti 1993), though this is not supported by recent genetic evidence which shows Sassafras to be monophyletic (Nie et al. 2007).

Importance to livestock and wildlife

Sassafras leaves and twigs are consumed by white-tailed deer in both summer and winter. In some areas it is an important deer food. Sassafras leaf browsers include woodchucks, marsh rabbits, and black bears. Rabbits eat sassafras bark in winter. Beavers will cut sassafras stems. Sassafras fruits are eaten by many species of birds including northern bobwhites, eastern kingbirds, great crested flycatchers, phoebes, wild turkeys, catbirds, flickers, pileated woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, thrushes, vireos, and mockingbirds. Some small mammals also consume sassafras fruits (Sullivan 1993).

For most of the above mentioned animals, sassafras is not consumed in large enough quantities to be important. Carey and Gill rate its value to wildlife as fair, their lowest rating (Sullivan 2003).

Uses

Safrole is now recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture as a potential carcinogen. Safrole, and sassafras not certified as safrole-free, have been banned in the United States as food additives or flavoring agents by the FDA since 1976 due to safrole's designation as a carcinogen. Sassafras leaves do not contain sufficient amounts of safrole to be covered by the FDA ban.

Safrole is commonly used by clandestine laboratories to synthesize various hallucinogenic drugs such as MDA (3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine), MDMA (Esctasy), and MDEA (Love). For this reason, the sale of safrole and sassafras oil is monitored by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Cultivation

Sassafras is often grown as an ornamental tree for its unusual leaves and aromatic scent. Outside of its native area, it is occasionally cultivated in Europe and elsewhere.

Wood

The wood is dull orange brown, hard, and durable in contact with the soil; it was used in the past for posts and rails, small boats and ox-yokes, though scarcity and small size limits current use. Some is still used for making furniture.

Medicinal and food uses

An essential oil, called sassafras oil, is distilled from the root bark or the fruit. It was used as a fragrance in perfumes and soaps, food (sassafras tea and candy flavoring) and for aromatherapy. The smell of sassafras oil is said to make an excellent repellent for mosquitoes and other insects, which makes it a nice garden plant. Acids can be extracted from bark for manufacturing perfumes.

The essential oil was used as a pain killer as well as an antiseptic in dentistry. The pith is used in the U.S. to soothe eye inflammation and ease catarrh.

Sassafras oil is the preferred source of safrole, which is the main component (75-80%) of the essential oil.

The root or root bark is used to make tea, although most commercial "sassafras teas" are now artificially flavored as a result of the FDA ban (see below). A yellow dye is obtained from the wood. The shoots were used to make root beer, a traditional soft drink beverage carbonated with yeast, which owed its characteristic odor and flavor to the sassafras extract. Most commercial root beers have replaced the sassafras extract with methyl salicylate, the ester found in wintergreen and black birch (Betula lenta) bark. A safrole-free sassafras extract is now available for flavoring.

The dried and ground leaves are known as filé powder. Filé is still used for thickening sauces and soups in Cajun, Creole, and other Louisiana cooking, notably in the dish filé gumbo.

Usage

Steam distillation of dried root bark produces an essential oil consisting mostly of safrole that once was extensively used as a fragrance in perfumes and soaps, food and for aromatherapy. The yield of this oil from American sassafras is quite low and great effort is needed to produce useful amounts of the root bark. Commercial "sassafras oil" generally is a by-product of camphor production in Asia or comes from related trees in Brazil. Safrole is a precursor for the clandestine manufacture of the drug MDMA (ecstasy), and as such, its transport is monitored internationally.

Culinary uses

The dried and ground leaves are used to make filé powder, a spice used in the making of some types of gumbo.

The roots of Sassafras can be steeped to make tea and were used in the flavoring of root beer until being banned by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Laboratory animals that were given oral doses of sassafras tea or sassafras oil that contained safrole developed permanent liver damage or various types of cancer. In humans, liver damage can take years to develop and it may not have obvious signs.

In 1960, the FDA banned the use of sassafras oil and safrole in foods and drugs based on the animal studies and human case reports. Several years later, the sale of sassafras oil, roots, or tea for human consumption was prohibited by law^{[citation needed]}. Subsequently, both Canada and the United States have passed laws against the sale of any consumable products (beverages, foods, cosmetics, health products such as toothpaste, and others) that contain more than specific small amounts of safrole.

Sassafras tea can also be used as blood thinner.

Sassafras was a commodity prized in Europe as a cure for Gonorrhea.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

. FNA Vol. 3 Login | eFloras Home | Help FNA | Family List | FNA Vol. 3 | Lauraceae 3. Sassafras J. Presl in F. Berchtold & J. S. Presl., Prir. Rostlin. 2: 30, 67. 1825.

• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS). 2004. Istiophoridae ITIS Taxonomic Serial No.: 172486. Retrieved June 1, 2008.

http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=18157 Sassafras Nees & Eberm. Taxonomic Serial No.: 18157

This section incorporates text from a public domain work of the US government: Sullivan, Janet (1993). Sassafras albidum. Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer).

External links

• Sassafras medical uses, dosage, cautions, and general information
• Drug Digest Sassafras

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