Sassafras
Sassafras | |
---|---|
Sassafras albidum, Norfolk Botanical Garden | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Magnoliids |
Order: | Laurales |
Family: | Lauraceae |
Genus: | Sassafras J.Presl[1]
|
Species | |
Sassafras albidum | |
Synonyms | |
Pseudosassafras Lecomte |
Sassafras is a genus of three
Description
Sassafras trees grow from 9–35 metres (30–115 feet) tall with many slender
-
Pistillate (female) flowers
-
Staminate (male) flowers
The largest known sassafras tree in the world is in Owensboro, Kentucky, and is over 30 m (100 ft) high and 6.4 m (21 ft) in circumference.[7][8]
Taxonomy
The genus Sassafras was first described by the
Early European colonists reported that the plant was called winauk by Native Americans in Delaware and Virginia and pauane by the Timucua. Native Americans distinguished between white sassafras and red sassafras, terms which referred to different parts of the same plant but with distinct colors and uses.[11] Sassafras was known as fennel wood (German Fenchelholz) due to its distinctive aroma.[12][clarification needed]
Species
The genus Sassafras includes four species, three extant and one extinct. Sassafras plants are endemic to North America and East Asia, with two species in each region that are distinguished by some important characteristics, including the frequency of three-lobed leaves (more frequent in East Asian species) and aspects of their sexual reproduction (North American species being dioecious).[citation needed]
Taiwanese sassafras,
North America
- 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 East Texas, formerly, Wisconsin[14]
- †Sassafras hesperia (Berry) – western North American, from the Eocene Klondike Mountain Formation of Washington and British Columbia;[3] extinct, known only from fossils.
East Asia
- Sassafras tzumu (Hemsl.) Hemsl. – Chinese sassafras or tzumu, central and southwestern China
- Sassafras randaiense (Hayata) Rehd. – Taiwan
Distribution and habitat
Many
Sassafras is commonly found in open woods, along fences, or in fields. It grows well in moist, well-drained, or sandy loam soils and tolerates a variety of soil types, attaining a maximum in southern and wetter areas of distribution.[16]
Sassafras albidum ranges from southern Maine and southern Ontario west to Iowa, and south to central Florida and eastern Texas, in North America. S. tzumu may be found in Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Zhejiang, China.[17] S. randaiense is native to Taiwan.[18]
Ecology
The leaves, bark, twigs, stems, and fruits are eaten by birds and mammals in small quantities. For most animals, sassafras is not consumed in large enough quantities to be important, although it is an important deer food in some areas. Carey and Gill rate its value to wildlife as fair, their lowest rating. Sassafras leaves and twigs are consumed by
Toxicity
Sassafras oil contains safrole, which may have a carcinogenic effect.[20][21]
Uses
All parts of sassafras plants, including roots, stems, twig leaves, bark, flowers, and fruit, have been used for culinary, medicinal, and aromatic purposes, both in areas where they are endemic and in areas where they were imported, such as Europe. The wood of sassafras trees has been used as a material for building ships and furniture in China, Europe, and the United States, and sassafras played an important role in the history of the European colonization of the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries. Sassafras twigs have been used as toothbrushes and fire starters.[16]
Culinary
Sassafras albidum is an important ingredient in some distinct foods of the US. It is the main ingredient in traditional root beer and sassafras root tea, and ground leaves of sassafras are a distinctive additive in Louisiana Creole cuisine. It is used in filé powder, a common thickening and flavoring agent in gumbo. Methods of cooking with sassafras combine this ingredient native to America with traditional North American, as well as European, culinary techniques, to create a unique blend of Creole cuisine, and are thought by some to be heavily influenced by a blend of cultures.[22] Sassafras is no longer used in commercially produced root beer since sassafras oil was banned for use in commercially mass-produced foods and drugs by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1960 due to health concerns about the carcinogenicity of safrole, a major constituent of sassafras oil, in animal studies.[20][21]
Sassafras leaves and flowers have also been used in salads, and to flavor fats or cure meats.[23][24] The young twigs can also be eaten fresh or dried. Additionally, the subterranean portion of the plant can be peeled, dried and boiled to make tea.[25]
Traditional medicine
This article is missing information about scientific evidence for or against effectiveness.(July 2023) |
Numerous
Sassafras root was an early export from North America, as early as 1609.[30]
Sassafras wood and oil were both used in dentistry. Early toothbrushes were crafted from sassafras twigs or wood because of its aromatic properties.[16] Sassafras was also used as an early dental anesthetic and disinfectant.[31][32]
Wood
Sassafras albidum is often grown as an
Oil and aroma
Steam distillation of dried root bark produces an essential oil which has a high safrole content, as well as significant amounts of varying other chemicals such as camphor, eugenol (including 5-methoxyeugenol), asarone, and various sesquiterpenes. Many other trees contain similarly high percentages and their extracted oils are sometimes referred to as sassafras oil,[36] which once was extensively used as a fragrance in perfumes and soaps, food and for aromatherapy. Safrole is a precursor for the clandestine manufacture of the drugs MDA and MDMA, and as such, sales and import of sassafras oil (as a safrole-containing mixture of above-threshold concentration) are heavily restricted in the US.[37]
Sassafras oil has also been used as a natural insect or pest deterrent, and in
Commercial use
For a more detailed description of uses by indigenous peoples of North America, and a history of the commercial use of Sassafras albidum by Europeans in the United States in the 16th and 17th centuries, see the article on the extant North American species of sassafras, Sassafras albidum.
In modern times, the sassafras plant has been grown and harvested for the extraction of sassafras oil. It is used in a variety of commercial products or their syntheses, such as the insecticide synergistic compound piperonyl butoxide.[38] These plants are primarily harvested for commercial purposes in Asia and Brazil.[39]
References
- ^ a b "Sassafras". International Plant Names Index (IPNI). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries; Australian National Botanic Gardens. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
- ^ a b van der Werff, Henk (1997). "Sassafras". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 3. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
- ^ a b Wolfe, Jack A. & Wehr, Wesley C. 1987. The sassafras is an ornamental tree. "Middle Eocene Dicotyledonous Plants from Republic, Northeastern Washington". United States Geological Survey Bulletin 1597:13
- ^ S2CID 44051126.
- ISBN 9781588748706.
- ^ Noble Plant Image Gallery Sassafras (includes photo of five-lobed leaf)
- ^ "Sassafras albidum" (PDF). Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2012-10-12. Retrieved 2009-06-15.
- ^ Bronaugh, Whit (May–June 1994). "The biggest sassafras". American Forests. Archived from the original on 2012-07-09. Retrieved 2009-06-15.
- ^ John Carter Brown Library (1570). Bibliotheca Americana: Catalogue of the John Carter Brown Library in Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, Volume 1, Part 2. Providence, RI: The Library. pp. 246, 267, 346. Archived from the original on 2015-05-18. Retrieved 2014-12-09.
- ^ Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913 ed.). 1913. pp. 1277–1280. Archived from the original on 2014-12-10. Retrieved 2014-12-09.
- ISBN 978-0-8493-2332-4.
- ISBN 978-0-415-92360-6.
- ^ Kamikoti, S. (1933). Ann. Rep. Taihoku Bot. Gard. 3: 78
- ^ Griggs, Margene M. (1990). "Sassafras albidum". In Burns, Russell M.; Honkala, Barbara H. (eds.). Hardwoods. Silvics of North America. Vol. 2. Washington, D.C.: United States Forest Service (USFS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) – via Southern Research Station.
- OCLC 228148187.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4665-8592-8.
- ISBN 978-0-8493-2119-1.
- S2CID 44051126.
- ^ This section incorporates text from a public domain work of the US government: Sullivan, Janet (1993). "Sassafras albidum". Fire Effects Information System (FEIS). US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service (USFS), Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory.
- ^ PMID 17362034.
- ^ a b Safrole: Human Health Effects. Toxnet: Toxicology Data Network. https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+2653 Archived 2017-10-29 at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 978-1-60473-127-9
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8493-1279-3.
- ISBN 978-0-449-90713-9.
- )
- ISBN 978-1-57954-184-2.
- ^ Wikibooks:Traditional Chinese Medicine/From Sabal Peregrina To Syzygium Samarangense
- ^ Tiffany Leptuck, "Medical Attributes of 'Sassafras albidum' – Sassafras"], Kenneth M. Klemow, Ph.D., Wilkes-Barre University, 2003
- ^ Keeler, H. L. (1900). Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.
- OCLC 560560606.
- ^ ASIN B007KGA15Q.
- ISBN 978-1-149-86231-5.
- ^ U.S. Forest Service: Sassafras albidum (pdf file) Archived October 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 978-1-107-07017-2.
- ISBN 978-0-8032-6205-8.
- ISBN 978-3-540-60181-4.)
{{cite book}}
:|first=
has generic name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link - ^ "Code of Federal Regulations". Article § 1310.04, Title No. 21 of January 27, 2012. pp. a.h.1, f.1.i. Archived from the original on April 17, 2016. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
... the threshold is determined by the weight of the listed chemical in the chemical mixture
- ^ Blickman, Tom (February 3, 2009). "Harvesting Trees". Transnational Institute. Archived from the original on April 11, 2015. Retrieved April 4, 2015.
External links
- U of Arkansas: Division of Agriculture Plant of the Week: Sassafras
- GardenGuides.com Sassafras – Shrub Plant Guide
- Plants for a Future: Plant Portrait – Sassafras albidum
- TVA: Native Plant – Sassafras
- Missouri Plants – Sassafras albidum
- The Jefferson Monticello: The Lucy Meriwether Lewis Marks exhibit – article by Wendy Cortesi
- FossilMuseum.net: Rare Sassafras Plant Fossils
- US Forest Service