Sassafras Root and Bark Herb (Tree or lower cut Bush) by Tea

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

This is my favorite Herb, I use it for pain uses, I have given it as a Hang over cure to my 35 year old son, simply mixed the tea with Milk and Honey and bam your all fixed up. I have made a perfume oil out of it and so much more. I use it a lot in my cooking, after all I am from the area were you can stop on any street corner and buy a jar of File' (Powdered Sassafras Leaves. I keep this herb in my home, like most keep Salt and Peppers.

I hope you enjoy the article put together because there are many uses for it and the Trees grow from Florida up the Mason Dixon Line to Mexico. I have never found a place you cannot buy Sassafras, roots, Powders(File') and so on.

Blessings,

~Tea~

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Sassafras Root and Bark Herb (Tree or lower cut Bush)

The original true flavor of root beer comes from sassafras root. Because sassafras root contains safrole, it cannot be sold in the US for human consumption. Sassafras root bark may be sold, although it too contains safrole, but it is not very good at providing flavor to the beverage. Sassafras grows wild in much of the Eastern US.

 

Safrole is an MDMA precursor and is itself psychoactive. Sassafras generates an extremely sweet-spicy smoke, useful in smoking meats. American Indians used an infusion of sassafras root to bring down a fever. They also smoked, in a pipe, the root bark, which is highly aromatic and inebriating.

 

Safrole occurs in over 70 essential oils derived from botanical sources (e.g. black pepper, nutmeg). It is a major constituent of the aromatic oil present in sassafras root bark. Despite the reported carcinogenicity of safrole and related compounds, it is known to display antibacterial and antiviral activity.

 

Right before World War l, scientific research discovered that people who drank sassafras root tea were more resistant to severe sore throat infections and colds than those individuals who did not. Continued medical research was interrupted by the war, and later studies were curtailed by the development of modern antibiotics. But finally, research was resumed and it was found that sassafras has a general antiseptic power, and that it also induces the liver to cleanse toxins from the system.

 

Grieve’s classic 'A Modern Herbal': 'The fragrant oil distilled from the root-bark is extensively used in the manufacture of the coarser kinds of perfume, and for scenting the cheapest grades of soap. The oil used in perfumes is also extracted from the fruits. The wood and bark of the tree furnish a yellow dye.'

 

'In Louisiana, the leaves are used as a condiment in sauces called File', and also for thickening soups; while the young shoots are used in Virginia for making a kind of beer. Mixed with milk and sugar, Sassafras Tea, under the name of 'Saloop,' could, until a few years ago, be bought at London street corners in the early mornings.'

 

'Aromatic, stimulant, diaphoretic, alterative. It is rarely given alone, but is often combined with guaiacum or sarsaparilla in chronic rheumatism, syphilis, and skin diseases.'

 

'The oil is said to relieve the pain caused by menstrual obstructions, and pain following parturition, in doses of 5 to 10 drops on sugar, the same dose having been found useful in glee't and gonorrhea.'

 

King's 1898 Dispensary: 'Sassafras is a warm, aromatic stimulant, alternative, diaphoretic, and diuretic. It is generally used in combination with other alternatives, particularly podophyllum, whose flavor it improves, in syphilitic affections, chronic rheumatism, scrofula, and many cutaneous eruptions.'

 

'An infusion of the bark administered internally and applied externally is reputed an excellent treatment for rhus(Poison Ivy, Oak and Sumac)poisoning.

 

Eclectic Materia Medica, 1922 (Felter): 'Sassafras tea is a popular alterative, diaphoretic, and carminative. It and the oil are decidedly stimulant. The latter, like other aromatic oils, has been used with more or less success in cystitis with much mucoid flow, and in so-called chronic gonorrhea.'

 

'The mucilage of the pith may be used as a demulcent. From ten to fifteen drops of the oil, administered in hot water or upon sugar, will sometimes relieve the pangs of dysmenorrhea. The chief use of sassafras oil is to flavor pharmaceutic syrups and other preparations.

I a lot of this info from the same place I love to buy a lot of my Bulk Herbs. But since I grew up with it, it is nothing I didn't already know.

http://www.kalyx.com/shopexd.asp?id=1121515