Sassafras - International, Historical Uses; Industry Opportunity

Safrole is also consumed in China, Chinese Sassafras

Sassafras has a revered place in many cultures.

Hospitality: In 1884, Ellen Emerson of Boston published a work of myths of "aborigines" (the term as used), from Hindustan, America, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, and China.* See the role of sassafras for hospitality world-wide. See  also ://www.erowid.org/archive/rhodium/chemistry/3base/safrole.plants/fafopo/sassafras_oil.html

Long history: from the Cretacean Period

Good uses: It once was seen as Plague cure: see "The Tree With Red Mittens," in the Missouri Conservationist at mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2000/02/50. See how it was used in early Virginia at nps.gov/archive/fora/hariotpart3. It is a tonic, a pick-me-up, an essential for tasty root beer, sarsaparilla, tea and more. See henriettesherbal.com/archives/best/1996/sarsaparilla for sarsaparilla from sassafras

Native Americans and Westerns thrived on it. Its age gives it a venerable place in evolution. See Joseph McCabe, 1910-1920, at arthurwendover.com/arthurs/science/evolution.

Other effects useful to some, deplored by others: Safrole has been known to cause abortion. With appropriate dosage, can it be a natural birth control method, and private? As with any ingestible, its effect depends on dosage. See thedance.com/herbs/sassafras. Safrole is used as an abortifacient for heifers, so its capacity in that function is no news here.

And yet: Safrole is banned, with all its good uses,
While other substances such as aspartame are not,
Even though a more direct impact on disease or ill effect seems clear.
Is ban then required, or could we simply limit the use?
Is it worse than, example, aspartame?
Aspartame reviews.

There are studies against safrole's use: as here,
Sassafras Carcinogen factors, at fax.libs.uga.edu/E98xR3xE5x1884/1f/indian_myths.txt at p. 141; and beta.blogger.com/bs.uga.edu/E98xR3xE5x1884/1f/indian_myths at p. 565.

For more on sassafras used for hospitality and rural cures, and edibles, see recipes for candy, jelly, tea. Here are recipes for sassafras tea, mead, "quarreling," and candy: www.southernhumorists.com/sassafras. A good chew will improve your breath. Yes, yours, says Wildman Steve at econetwork.net/%7Ewildmansteve/Plants.Folder/Sassafras.

A promoter of file gumbo, describes it in: generalhorticulture.tamu.edu/prof/Recipes/File-Sassafras/file.
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* Photo, see China Road Ways

Sassafras in Georgia - Moravians and Clipper Ships

Sassafras from Georgia
to Europe in The Great Clipper Ships.

Transporting Sassafras to Make People's Fortunes

The Moravians in Georgia depended on sassafras for health. They made a beer from it, to their great benefit. Where they could not drink the water, or where legs and feet became swollen, the brew was the thing. See the historic account at ://www.fullbooks.com/The-Moravians-in-Georgia-1735-1740-by2.html/ "Palatable and healthful." Is that our root beer, or the old, good kind? Here is a preliminary draft paper on uses of plants from the new world, including sassafras, not sure of the subsequent status of the research - see ://wfr.eduhistory/Events/Moravians/papers/wilsonconferencedraft.doc/

Early missionaries arrived and promptly arranged for trade in sassafras, see  Our Todays and Yesterdays, at  ://www.glynngen.com/mdc/oty/page1.htm/ , at text page 8 - scroll down. The trade in sassafras was also important for the Spaniards arriving - they also believed in its great medicinal value and gathered the root for tea-making. Perhaps the tea's benefits derived from boiling the water, but vast quantities of the roots were sent to Spain for use - sounds like there is more to it than boiling water. See the glynngen site.

The Indians called what is now Cumberland Island, Georgia, "Missoe" meaning sassafras. The Spanish named it San Pedro. After the English took over the Spanish control of the island in 1686 or so, the English took back to England several prominant Indians for show.  An Englishman, Cumberland, gave one of the elder Indians a gold watch. The Indian asked, upon return, if the island could be renamed for the Englishman who gave him the gold watch - ergo, Cumberland. See page 59 of the glynngen site.

Dr. Samuel Nunez, who escaped with his family from the Inquisition in Lisbon, settled among the English in Georgia, and lists sassafras among the remedies he used to purify the blood.  See Harvard Medical Alumni article from 1961 by a Dr. Weinstein, at ://underthemagnoliatree.net/Samuel_Nunez.html/.

On we go. How can we devalue sassafras so? The island of St. Simons also is known for its sassafras, among a wide variety of trees there. Page 114, below the 1806 entries, glynngen.

Once established, the sassafras spreads by its underground runners. Cut it down, use it up, and it grows right back again. It can grow so densely that strong measures are required in rebuttal. Difficult to cultivate intentionally. Runners in all directions from the big trees' roots. Then shoot up everywhere, each seeking sun. Turn your head away for one season, and watch out. Mow it back. Go, Don.

Transplanting is difficult. Like people, we do better with connectors.

Sassafras then protects its turf. It puts off chemicals that discourage other plants from competing in its range. No others allowed in its shadow. Like us, keep out the competition.

This allelopathy- the built-in rejector - is a highly developed defense as to those who would eat it. The allelopathic chemicals keep the rodent-beavers from eating the whole tree. They will only eat the twigs, leaving the tree free to produce for another year. Look up other allelopathic defenses - using chemicals to repel. All part of nature. See davesgarden.com/terms/go for more species that do this, and a good definition. As to beavers, their dams go up, the trees live for another season, beavers and dams happy.

Fast forward to the FDA: ignoring allelopathy, and usinge rodents as a baseline for whether people would get cancer from sassafras, when rodents are naturally averse? On that basis, take away all safrole.

File is ok - so go make your own.
See home-made file gumbo powder at www.nolacuisine.com/2005/08/16/file-powder.

Was a relative of the sassafras found in Tutankhamen's tomb? Looking for that reference.We see that essential oils were found in trace, but that sassafras seems to be native to the Americas. Safrole is an essential oil, used in fragrances, but not for Tut.

Tutankhamen, Roadside Pub Teaser, Poland

Drive past this Tut for a mile or so and find the second one, with the sign to the pub.















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Interest broadening now to nettles:

• Nettle tea is good,

Read about nettle tea and other herbal remedies
At forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/herbal/msg0815470719656.html?18.

• Restoring hair loss? If it does that cure,

Does that make steepy nettle tea a drug
So that the FDA can ban it, too,
Big Merck Attack.

If you also want your rootbeer back, see www.assateague.com/sass. --Sassafras leaves, uses.

What Did Sassafras Do To Deserve the Ban

What Did Sassafras Do to Deserve the Ban

Less Carcinogenic,
Or at least,
No More Than
Your Common Kitchen Herbs and Spices

And less carcinogenic than beer beer.

Bans: Why do some substances simply get placed behind the counter, like sudafed, while others, like sassafras, get banned entirely? www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070320191048.

Sassafras is not unique.

Food substances do have high-dose problems.
Safrole, even the darling of pumpkin pie and eggnot, nutmeg.
See www.erowid.org/plants/nutmeg/nutmeg_info3 for plant doses.

But people have been sensible and benefiting anyway for years from access to plant materials.

Sassafras remedies may show promise - see www.heart-disease-bypass-surgery.com/data/articles/104

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Summary of the ban:
Safrole in sassafras was banned (the 60's),
See www.roundrockjournal.com for a photo and rootbeer blog.
The FDA labeling this food
As an "additive" instead of a food,
So it could regulate it through the back door.
Get it both ways -
Label it as a "drug" if it claims cures,
Because supposedly only a drug can claim a cure;
And so it could regulate even more.
Next thing: chicken soup a drug.

Find a label back again - the Label Wars.
Highly selective, lobby-sycophants.
For sycophant, see dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2004/01/04.

Squelch info so corps can continue making cash
On their concocted -raising prescriptions, if any?
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* Counter argument: See some notes on the contraindications of herbs at www.planetherbs.com/articles/Bentley%20contraindications."Within Sassafras there is a chemical called safrole. Safrole is a very common plant chemical, found in Mace, Nutmeg, basil, black pepper, Rosemary, Dill, Black tea, Dang Gui, Tamarind, Cinnamon, witch hazel, Asian wild ginger, and many other plants.

"Someone did a study demonstrating that this substance was carcinogenic in rats. Dr. James Duke reports that even if this same carcinogenicity were applicable to humans, a cup of sassafras tea would be 1/14 as carcinogenic as a cup of beer."

One Person's Morality? Another's Choice. Choose Safrole? Beats Pork Fat.

Who labeled sassafras worse than pork fat?

Eat your pork fat and have a good time. But don't touch the root beer.

The cultural choices we make.

Pork fat rules. We hear.

But an educated dose of safrole is out. Who says? What were the real reasons for banning safrole from our root beer, our hospitality teas.





"WARNING
Use of sassafras oil has caused abortion in pregnant women Research in the 1960's showed that safrole, a principal constituent of oil of sassafras, caused liver cancer in mice, and the US Food and Drug Administration outlawed the sale of flavorings (including oil of sassafras) containing it. Today's rootbeer is made with synthetic flavorings or oil of sassafras from which the safrole has been removed. Apparently filè powder does not contain enough safrole to be dangerous, and it is available commercially."

Maybe that knowledge must be kept under wraps.
Why? If it has been used so in history,
Provide information on the brew
So people need not rely on others to act.
A backyard solution for those who seek?
Their business then. Why not now?

Rationale: Maybe an overdose will cause illness.
It made rats sick.
But of course. Rats are averse to it - naturally.
Correlate with people?

Even where overdose is harmful,
Why ban? Why not provide information on the brew?
A plant misunderstood -
Its safrole, sassafras oil, banned by the FDA
But based on 20-day testing on rats.
Please tell the FDA
So it will tailor its testing methods
To the needs and inclinations of the testees.
That rules in everything else, so also here.
Just free the poor rats from sassafras.
They will sicken from sassafras every time.*

Granted, it is a plant with a downside if abused.
Like tobacco, or cough medicines.
It can be more than a pick-me up:
See www.chow.com/stories/10129; "Your Sassafras Has Been Neutered."
Is not the conclusion to regulate it, not ban.

It does take regulation;
Here is how to keep its stands of new shoots at bay:
Head right in and mow once in a while.
Go, Don.
Because the sassafras, like all of us, gets wild.
Huge overdose brings harm, expectedly.

Just set proper dosage and use labels for people,
And release the ban.
If cigarettes are sold with warnings, **
Why not lowly sassafras in root beer, too?
See www.planetherbs.com/articles/Bentley for Notes on Herb Contraindications.

To lift the ban, we need to conform here:
Need lobbyists for sassafras.

Need to promise career enhancements to them,
And look the other way when the FDA people own stock
In the enterprises they regulate, like Pharma,
If the FDA will just lift the ban.
That's how it is done.

Sad part.
Because there is a ban,
And government agencies must be acting
In the public interest, ha (see Sassafras Tree).

And that cup of sassafras is 1/14 as carcinogenic
As cup of beer. The Duke study. Dr. James Duke.

People will believe the ban is justified
Just because it is out there,
And not ask for backup information.
See www.mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2000/02/50. for The Tree With Red Mittens.
The two-lobed leaves in fall look just like that.

Accommodating. Sassafras. Promethean. Shape-Changer. The Gift; The Leaf Fits the Need.

The Gift of Danger and Life-Giving.

The Shape-Changer.

Sassafras -

What Moral for Authority

1. Promethean.

Prometheus, punished in the ancient world by the gods for giving fire to mankind.

See ://www.gradesaver.com/mythology/study-guide/section3/.

Then, find Raven, in the tales of the Indians, in the North American northwest.

He stole a ball of fire, a bright ball,

From the Sky Chief

And gave it to Humanity.

See ://www.adherents.com/lit/Na/Na_417.html.

2. The Shape-Changer.

Among the Celts, see Fintan, the Salmon of Wisdom, Celtic Mythology://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/browse/D3.HTM/ He flew above Noah's Ark, changed himself into a hawk to fly above the waters, then into a fish to swim in them. He ate the gods magic hazelnuts, got their wisdom, but was himself caught and eaten, and his eater got all the knowledge. Go, Finn MacCool, who then became a seer.

More Shape-changer. Do a "find" for shape-changer,

And scroll down to Salish.

So, Edgar Allen Poe's Raven is like a "Salish Prometheus."

Prometheus - another part of the globe.

3. The Sassafras

Also a gift, also dangerous is misused.
Multiple lobes on leaves at the lower stories fade away

To become one boring single-shape, no lobes, at the top.

It is the need to maximize light exposure below

That leads to the creativity.

Those who already have it, at the top, relax, and become (yawn) borrring.

Sassafras: Leaves, lobes. Understory.
.
This site is dedicated to the Sassafras. Sunseeker.
Shape-changer.
To find it, look for one set of leaf groupings below, in the understory.

Then look around for the big trees - another, a single type of leaf, forming the canopy, above.
The lower shrubby, thickety parts

Grow leaves in three shapes, all on the same twig - One lobe, two lobe (like a mitten),

And three-lobe, all kind of irregular.

Each geared to maximize exposure to light,

Or the ability to fit in a small space, whatever is needed.

Those that make it, become the big trees.

The canopy.
And the big trees at the canopy level revert to boring.
The canopy sports but one kind of leaf.

A single lobe, up there.

The irony is that the conformist leaf dominates --

The plant reverts to singlemindedness

When the more creative work of survival is done below.

And it is the least intereseting - no lobes at all.

The single dull leaf. Like people?

After time, sure.

The next generation is far less interesting

Than the one that made it to the top originally.
See the push from the top to conform-

Tries to make everyone alike in obedience to the needs of the canopy.

Intolerant of the diverse upstarts who keep pressing upwards.

Then the diverse upstarts, once they establish themselves in the canopy,

Themselves revert to what the big trees do when they get there:

Conform, in their own interest.

The under 30's become AARP.

The common colors of the country club vs. the dazzle of the streets.

Home on the Sassafras Range, North America,

 Sassafras

Its Whereabouts

Do we appreciate the bounty.  The place of sassafras in households.
/

Read in Uncle Remus: "When the little boy next visited Uncle Remus, the old man was engaged in the somewhat tedious operation of making shoe pegs.  Daddy Jack was assorting a bundle of sassafras roots...."

See  Chapter XXXI, "Nights With Uncle Remus," at ://www.archive.org/stream/nightswithuncler00harr/nightswithuncler00harr_djvu.txt/

I. MARYLAND AND DELAWARE. You can find sassafras in Maryland and Delaware - Kent County, Sassafras River, Chesapeake Bay area. Go to this site for the Chesapeake Bay area, Sassafras River: kentcounty.com/paddling/sassafras. There is a lovely photo there.

The Sassafras River begins in Delaware (we used to live in Middletown, DE, not far) and is the boundary between Delaware and Maryland on the Eastern Shore. See sassafrasriver.org for details on the Sassafras River as boundary. Stand up, Delaware. Why do they say the Sassafras is in Maryland when it is the boundary with Delaware? Or is it not the boundary?

Here is the recreation:

• Sea-kayaking on the Sassafras. See seakayak.ws/kayak/kayak.nsf/NavigationList/NT00001D72. For any of these sites, use the home page first, then the rest only as needed to be sure you are at the intended place.

• Fine fishing. See bigfishtackle.com/articles/fishing/freshwater/steve_vonbrandt_007.

• Yachting. See sasryc.org/home/index. Marinas, marinas. The yacht club flag at that site shows the outline-silhouette of the river.

VIP's peopled the sassafras area. The Cecil County, Maryland, website says that John Smith was there. See Cecil County and John Smith at cecil.org/about/history. The Toghwagh Indians lived beside the Sassafras and were there first. Parts of it were sites for the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, railroading, steamboating and other transportation history. William Paca was from there, and he signed the Declaration of Independence.

George Washington ordered army-related requisitions and troop movements around the Sassafras as well. See memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw [continue with these if you need to :@field%28DOCID+@lit%28dg007451%29%29]. There was a Sassafras Town according to the 1790 census. See mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/refserv/bulldog/ [go on with these if needed bull03/bull17-03/html/bull17-03] Scroll down to the designation of "S" on a map, and see its full name as provided.

George? Last seen spinning in his grave at the denigration of the sassafras by the Fool and Dither Administration banning safrole in the 1960's (see Sassafras Tree, while owning stock in what they permit, and going just as fast as their little feet will take them to jobs there after the FDA. Oh, George. Oh, George.
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MISSOURI
There is a children's book set at Sassafras Springs, Missouri, tha tlays out a great project for anyone, anywhere. In seven days, find Seven Wonders in your own home town. This was the task set for Eben, and if he did it, he could go visit relatives in Colorado. Look up "The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs."

We may start on that right here in Avon, Connecticut. The wonders would be the stories of all the varied people in my own neighborhood, and how they got here. We may be one of the most culturally integrated sections of town.
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GEORGIA AND THE MORAVIANS

Immigrants found valuable uses for sassafras. See worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/northamerican/TheMoraviansinGeorgia/chap3. for the story of people from this area of Poland who immigrated to Georgia. There are other references to a strong beer and the uses of it, but the term "sassafras" is not stated at those. Just click on "edit;" and "find on this page;" and type in "beer" at the bottom and see what comes up.

Gads - the Moravians are spinning also. Look out, FDA, who banned sassafras' safrole in the 1960's (the point emerging is that regulation on dose is appropriate, not ban). Here is a picture of sassafras leaves, with their own thumbs up, in case the FDA misses the point. See forums.arborday.org/forum/viewtopic. Then, if that does not do it, go on to php?t=2011&sid=5fd5d10fb825eba343dbf2116539d499 if you need to, to find sassafras and the thumbs up.

The Moravians are a protestant faith and here is their website: www.moravian.org/. I like their home page - it summarizes their beliefs as follows, a fair use quote:

"In essentials, unity.
In non-essentials, liberty.
In all things, love."

What each of us thinks is "essential," however. -- "aye, there's the rub." See davidpbrown.co.uk/poetry/william-shakespeare-3. on Hamlet for that one.

Side frolic on moral decisions: by what authority does anyone come within the the span of another's outspread arms and fingertips, and big feet, to make moral decisions for that other person? a la da Vinci circle Vitruvian man . Morality by location, location, location. If there are consequences, each of us bears our own. 
.

SOUTH CAROLINA

There is also Sassafras Mountain in South Carolina

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FN 1 Why is it "considered" unsafe." So many sites say that, without going into the flawed testing  - using rats, and huge overdoses; when rats themselves are averse to it - allelopathic.  The site goes on to say that there is little "scientific" evidence for its benefits - but fails to say that Pharma customarily only pays for testing on substances from its labs that it can patent, profit from. No patents on mother nature. And the "dangers" are only "potential" as based on the rat testing.  Noone knows much about it, or is looking, see ://www.lifescript.com/Health/Alternative-Therapies/Herbs/The_Dangers_Of_Sassafras.aspx/  Is "Blue Shield" and its "claims" neutral? However, the site also says it is a good diuretic.

See also Sassafras Tree, Natural Pragmatism, Allelopathy: Vetting the Concept Gap in the Lab.  There seems to be no factoring in of that element. that rats and rodents are averse to sassafras in the first place - use mice and rats anyway. 


Rodent repellent:  Go ahead. Use safrole oil to repel rodents. It works. See http://www.ag.uidaho.edu/mg/handbook/MGH11.pdf/ So why use rodents to test sassafras and human health?  More on the testing issue at ://www.planetherbs.com/theory/notes-on-herb-drug-and-herb-herb-contraindications.html

Habeas Herbus. How to persuade the unpersuadable: Try Non-Eloquence.

CLOSING ARGUMENTS

Your Honor, evidence here clearly shows
That Appellant-Petitioner, seated
In the Garden to my left, with deep roots
In History, Culture, Healing and Tea,
Root beer and other sundry useful use,

Was wrongly found guilty of cancerous
Predilections in humans; only rats.
And those rodents (filing their own action,
The Habeas Mousus * before this Court)
Have systems that by nature see safrole
As pesticide. Of course, it's whiskers up.
We also learned that safrole will dissolve
In alcohol, not water. Runs right through!

With this the only stated ban basis
For safrole, its carcinogenic side,
There is no demonstration of cancer
In humans; with usual warnings and
Inform on doses, handling, regulate
For purity, but let our safrole go.
If someone uses it wrong and throws up,
Commonplace! See unregulated hootch.
If someone dies from overuse, that's like
Our fostered ciggyboos. Industry rich.

There may indeed be reason for control
If we, as claimed, can make from it a part
Of ecstasy; and if its qualities
In birth control may mean bad overdose
For those unlearned in safety in its use.
But airplane glue can also be misused,
And education is the answer here.
Who has the right to judge morals out there?
We watch our own - let others do the same.

Habeas herbus. Ancient writ. Backbone
Of justice and due process for root beer
And reinstatement of true frothy head,
Respectfully request that the judgment
Against safrole be reversed; a free herb.

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* Habeas corpus definition at answers.com/topic/habeas-corpus; history at habeascorpus.net/asp.

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