_Sassafras Root_; F. _Bois de Sassafras_, _Lignum Sassafras_; G.
_Sassafrasholz_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Sassafras officinalis_ Nees (_Laurus Sassafras_
L.), a tree growing in North America, from Canada, southward to Florida
and Missouri. In the north it is only a shrub, or a small tree 20 to 30
feet high, but in the Middle and Southern United States, and especially
in Virginia and Carolina, it attains a height of 40 to 100 feet. The
leaves are of different forms, some being ovate and entire, and others
two- or three-lobed, the former, it is said, appearing earlier than the
latter.
=History=—Monardes relates that the French during their expedition
to Florida (1562-1564) cured their sick with the wood and root of a
tree called _Sassafras_, the use of which they had learnt from the
Indians.[1990] Laudonnière, who was a member of that expedition, and
diligently set forth the wonders of Florida, observes that, among
forest trees, the most remarkable for its timber and especially for its
fragrant bark, is that called by the savages _Pavame_ and by the French
_Sassafras_.[1991]
The drug was known in Germany, at least since 1582, under the
above names or also by that of _Lignum Floridum_ or _Fennel-wood_,
_Xylomarathrum_.[1992]
The sassafras tree had been introduced into England in the time of
Gerarde (_circa_ 1597), who speaks of a specimen growing at Bow. At
that period the wood and bark of the root were used chiefly in the
treatment of ague.
In 1610, a paper of instructions from the Government of England to
that of the new colony of Virginia, mentions among commodities to be
sent home, “_Small sassafras Rootes_” which are “to be drawen in the
winter and dryed and none to be medled with in the somer;—and yet is
worthe £50 and better per tonne.”[1993] The shipments were afterwards
much overdone, for in 1622 complaint is made that other things than
_tobacco_ and _sassafras_[1994] were neglected to be shipped.
Angelus Sala, an Italian chemist living in Germany about the year
1610-1630, in distilling sassafras noticed that the oil was heavier
than water;[1995] it was quoted in 1683 in the tariff of the apothecary
of the elector of Saxony, at Dresden.[1996] John Maud in 1738 obtained
crystals of safrol as long as 4 inches;[1997] in 1844 they were
examined by Saint-Evre.
=Description=—Sassafras is imported in large branching logs, which
often include the lower portion of the stem, 6 to 12 inches in
diameter.[1998]
[1990] _Historia medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias
occidentales_, (Sevilla, 1574) 51.
[1991] De Laet, _Novus Orbis_, 1633. 215.—René de Laudonnière,
_Histoire notable de la Floride_. 1586.
[1992] _Pharm. Journ._ v. (1876) 1023.
[1993] _Colonial Papers_, vol. i. No. 23 (MS. in the Record Office,
London).
[1994] _Colonial Papers_, vol. ii. No. 4.
[1995] _Opera medico-chymica_, Francofurti, 1682, p. 83.
[1996] Flückiger, _Documente_ (quoted at p. 404, note 7) 70.
[1997] _Phil. Trans. R. Soc. of London_, viii. (1809) 243.
[1998] The sassafras logs met with in English trade often include a
considerable portion of trunk-wood, which, as well as the bark that
covers it, is inert, and should be sawn off and rejected before the
wood is rasped.
The roots proper, which diminish in size down to the thickness of a
quill, are covered with a dull, rough, spongy bark. This bark has
an inert, soft corky layer, beneath which is a firmer inner bark of
brighter hue, rich in essential oil. The wood of the root is light and
easily cut, in colour of a dull reddish-brown, and with a fragrant
odour and spicy taste similar to that of the bark but less strong. It
is usually sold in the shops rasped into shavings.
The _bark of the root_ (_Cortex sassafras_) is a separate article of
commerce, but not much used in England. It consists of channelled,
flattish, or curled, irregular fragments seldom exceeding 4 inches
long by 3 inches broad and generally much smaller, and from ¹/₁₆ to
¼ of an inch in thickness. The inert outer layer has been carefully
removed, leaving a scarred, exfoliating surface. The inner surface
is finely striated and exhibits very minute shining crystals. The
bark has a short, corky fracture, and in colour is a bright cinnamon
brown of various shades. It has a strong and agreeable smell, with an
astringent, aromatic, bitterish taste.
=Microscopic Structure=—The wood of the root exhibits, in transverse
section, concentric rings transversed by narrow medullary rays. Each
ring contains a number of large vessels in its inner part, and more
densely packed cells in its outer. The prevailing part of the wood
consists of prosenchyme cells. Globular cells, loaded with yellow
essential oil, are distributed among the woody prosenchyme. The latter
as well as the medullary rays abounds in starch.
The _bark_ is rich in oil-cells and also contains cells filled with
mucilage; it owes its spongy appearance and exfoliation to the
formation of secondary cork bands (_rhytidoma_) within the mesophlœum
and even in the liber. The cortical tissue abounds in red colouring
matter, and further contains starch and, less abundantly, oxalate of
calcium.
=Chemical Composition=—The wood of the root yields 1 to 2 per cent.
of volatile oil,[1999] and the root-bark twice as much. The stem and
leaves of the tree contain but a very small quantity. The oil, which
as found in commerce is all manufactured in America, has the specific
odour of sassafras, and is colourless, yellow, or reddish-brown,
according, as the distillers assert, to the character of the root
employed. As the colour of the oil does not affect its flavour and
market value, no effort is made to keep separate the different
varieties of root.
Oil of Sassafras has a sp. gr. of 1·087 to 1·094, increasing somewhat
by age (Procter). When cooled, it deposits crystals of _Safrol_ or
_Sassafras Camphor_. This body, which we obtained in the form of hard,
four- or six-sided prisms with the odour of sassafras, often attaining
more than 4 inches in length and 1 inch in diameter, belongs to the
monosymmetric system, as shown by Arzruni.[2000] Safrol, C₁₀H₁₀O₂,
liquefies at 8°·5 C. (47° F.), having at 12° C. a sp. gr. of 1·11; it
boils at 232° C., and is devoid of rotatory power, nor is it soluble in
alkalis. The researches of Grimaux and Ruotte (1869) show the oil to
contain nine-tenths of its weight of _Safrol_ which they observed only
in the liquid state.
[1999] According to information obtained by Procter, 11 bushels of
chips (the charge of a still) yields from 1 to 5 lb. of oil, the amount
varying with the quality of the root and the proportion of bark it
may contain.—Procter, _Essay on Sassafras in the Proceedings of the
American Pharm. Association_, 1866. 217.
[2000] Poggendorff’s _Annalen_, clviii. (1876) 249, with figures of the
crystals.
Another constituent of sassafras oil has been termed by Grimaux and
Ruotte _Safrene_; it boils at 155° to 157° C., has a sp. gr. of 0·834
and the formula C₁₀H₁₆. It has the same odour as safrol, but deviates
the plane of polarization to the right.
It was further found by the same observers that the crude oil contains
an extremely small quantity of a substance of the phenol class, which
can be removed by caustic lye and separated by an acid.
We succeeded in obtaining this substance by using that portion of the
crude oil from which the safrol had separated. The phenol remains in
the mother-liquor after it has again been cooled and has afforded a new
crystallization of safrol. The phenol thus obtained assumes a beautiful
greenish blue hue on addition of an alcoholic solution of perchloride
of iron.
The _Sassarubin_ and _Sassafrin_ of Hare (1837) are impure products of
the decomposition of sassafras oil by means of sulphuric acid.
The _bark_ and also to some extent the _wood_, in both cases of the
root, contain tannic acid which produces a blue colour with persalts
of iron. By oxidation, we must suppose, it is converted into the red
colouring matter deposited in the bark and, in smaller quantity, in
the heartwood of old trees. The young wood is nearly white. The said
red substance probably agrees with that to which Reinsch in 1845 and
1846 gave the name of _Sassafrid_, and is doubtless analogous to
cinchona-red and ratanhia-red. Reinsch obtained it to the extent of 9·2
per cent.
=Production and Commerce=—Baltimore is the chief mart for sassafras
root, bark and oil, which are brought thither from within a circuit
of 300 miles. The roots are extracted from the ground by the help of
levers, partly barked and partly sent untouched to the market, or are
cut up into chips for distillation on the spot. Of the bark as much as
100,000 lb. were received in Baltimore in 1866. The quantity of oil
annually produced previous to the war is estimated at 15,000 to 20,000
lb. There are isolated small distillers in Pennsylvania and West New
Jersey, who are allowed by the owners of a “_sassafras wilderness_” to
remove from the ground the roots and stumps without charge. Sassafras
root is not medicinal in the United States, the more aromatic root-bark
being reasonably preferred.[2001]
=Uses=—Sassafras is reputed to be sudorific and stimulant, but in
British practice it is only given in combination with sarsaparilla and
guaiacum. Shavings of the wood are sold to make _Sassafras Tea_.
In America the essential oil is used to give a pleasant flavour to
effervescing drinks, tobacco and toilet soaps.[2002]
=Substitutes=—The odour of sassafras is common to several plants of the
order _Lauraceæ_. Thus the bark of _Mesphilodaphne Sassafras_ Meissn.,
a tree of Brazil, resembles in odour true sassafras. We have seen a
very thick sassafras bark brought from India, the same we suppose as
that which Mason[2003] describes as abundantly produced in Burma.
The bark of _Atherosperma moschatum_ Labillardière, an Australian tree,
is occasionally exported from Australia under the name of Sassafras
bark. It has the odour of the true drug, but differs from it by its
grey colour.
[2001] Besides this, _the pith of sassafras_ is also there used as a
popular remedy; it is entirely devoid of odour and taste, and is very
slightly mucilaginous.
[2002] _American Journ. of Pharm._ 1871. 470.
[2003] _Burmah, its people and natural productions_, 1860. 497.
The large separate cotyledons of two lauraceous trees of the Rio Negro,
doubtfully referred by Meissner to the genus _Nectandra_, furnish the
so-called _Sassafras Nuts_ or _Puchury_ or _Pilchurim Beans_ of Brazil,
occasionally to be met with in old drug warehouses.
On the Orinoko and in Guiana an oleo-resin, called _Sassafras Oil_
or _Laurel Oil_, is obtained by boring into the stem of _Oreodaphne
opifera_ Nees, which sometimes contains a cavity holding a large
quantity of this fluid.[2004] A similar oil (_Aceite de Sassafras_) is
afforded on the Rio Negro by _Nectandra Cymbarum_ Nees.[2005]
[2004] _Brit. Guiana_ at the Paris Exhibition, 1878, Sect. C. p. 7.
[2005] Spruce in _Hooker’s Journ. of Bot._ vii. (1855) 278.