Columbus, Saloop, and the Sassafras

More stars for sassafras. 1-4-9-2.
Columbus' sailors inhaled the perfume
Wafting from shores nearby. Said yes to land.
See Mother Earth and Sassafras at www.motherearthnews.com/Natural_Health/1983_July_August/Mother_s_Herb_Garden__Sassafras. Here is a rough summary:

Medicinal uses: Native Americans had used sassafras for possibly thousands of years, as a medicinal herb. Europeans took up the use - shipping cargoes of leaves for poultices and teas. The bark could be shipped and steeped in boiling water. Use one ounce bark to one pint water. Take it with some wine as long as needed to reduce a fever (or fall asleep). It was used for rheumatisk, inflamed eyes, ease women's female conditions - menstrual and birth pain - for gout, dropsy, scurvy, skin problems, even dropsy. It also disinfects - and was used in dental surgery. People believed it purified blood, and controlled excess mucous -- it was believed to cure venereal disease

Autumn red sassafras. The red mitten on the way.

Dose: How much oil of safrole to use? One to five drops in boiled water. More could be dangeous - "One teaspoon of the pure oil is enough to cause vomiting, dilated pupils, stupor, spontaneous abortion, collapse . . .and even death!"

Nonetheless, is became a flavoring, and covered the opium taste when opium was given to children to quiet them in the nineteenth century.

Cooking uses: Dry and powder up the leaves, and you get file for Creole cooking. It thickens and adds taste to soups and sttews. Steep the bark and add milk and sugar and get a fine drink called saloop. This was sold on street corners in England through the early 20th century.

In more recent times, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1960 conducted tests on the chemical constituent safrole which showed that massive amounts fed to rats caused liver cancer in the rodents. This prompted a ban on sales of sassafras tea . . .although not, it

might be remarked, on nutmeg, pepper, star anise, or ordinary China tea, all of which contain the substance. Safrole is practically insoluble in water, however, which may help to account for sassafras tea's long history of evidently safe use."