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The Americas
Published in Michael J. O’Dowd, The History of Medications for Women, 2020
Sassafras albidum, or sassafras, is an aromatic deciduous tree whose scent is said to have guided Christopher Columbus from the broad Atlantic to the eastern shores of America, but in reality the plant was discovered in Florida by the Spanish. Sassafras was another of the medicinal herbs to be exported to Europe and was used as an anti-syphilitic agent as early as 1560, but never achieved the notoriety and popularity of guajacum although it became ‘official’ and remained in all the major national pharmacopoeias until the early part of the twentieth century. The plant extract contains alkaloids and other active chemicals and is prescribed for arthritis by herbalists. The fragrant Sassafras has also been used as food flavoring and in root beer.
Adverse Effects and Intoxication with Essential Oils
Published in K. Hüsnü Can Başer, Gerhard Buchbauer, Handbook of Essential Oils, 2020
The main constituent of sassafras oil is safrole, which is also present in small amounts in a number of spices. Sassafras oil is extracted from the bark and roots of the tree Sassafras albidum. It has had a traditional and widespread use as a natural diuretic, as well as a remedy against urinary tract disorders or kidney problems until safrole was discovered to be hepatotoxic and weakly carcinogenic (Fennell et al., 1984; Rietjens et al., 2005). Thus, the FDA banned the use of sassafras oil as a food and flavoring additive because of the high content of safrole and its proven carcinogenic effects. However, pure sassafras oil is still available online and also in some health-food stores.
Phyto constituent-Centered Byproducts and Nanomedicines as Leishmanicidal Scavengers
Published in Mahfoozur Rahman, Sarwar Beg, Mazin A. Zamzami, Hani Choudhry, Aftab Ahmad, Khalid S. Alharbi, Biomarkers as Targeted Herbal Drug Discovery, 2022
Sabya Sachi Das, P. R. P. Verma, Sandeep Kumar Singh
Sartorelli et al. (2007) analyzed the dried extracts and segments from the fruits of Cassia fistula used for the treatment of VL. Hexane extract exhibited substantial ALA beside the promastigote stage of L. chagasi. The bio-directed degradation ensued in the seclusion of a sterol, clerosterol, further scrutinized in altered models. Promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes established high vulnerability (IC50 10.03 μg/mL and 18.10 μg/mL, respectively). Mammalian cytotoxicity was also assessed; further results confirmed that clerosterol was less lethal than the conventional drug pentamidine. Radwan et al. (2009) isolated 9 novel cannabinoids from a highly potential variety of Cannabis sativa. Some selective compounds exhibited substantial antibacterial and antifungal actions, while some compound displayed strong in-vitro ALA. Mazoir et al. (2011) appraised the in vitro ALA against L. infantum promastigotes and T. cruzie pimastigotes of isolated 25 selective semisynthetic terpenoid metabolites obtained from Euphorbia resinifera (α-euphol and α-euphorbol) and Euphorbia officinarum (obtusifoliol and 31-norlanosterol). Furthermore, results unveiled that 78% and 62% of the test composites showed antiparasitic actions on L. infantum and T. cruzi, respectively. Da Silva et al. (2014) examined the in vitro ALA against numerous Leishmania species and antibacterial actions against selective bacteria strains isolated from the methanolic extract and segments of Lacistema pubescens. Results showed that the hexane fraction of extract showed a resilient activity alongside amastigotes of L. amazonensis (IC50= 6.8 μg/mL). Pulivarthi et al. (2015) detected the ALA of Sassafras albidum (Lauraceae) bark extract and quoted that this compound has excellent ALA (IC50 <12.5 µg/mL) against promastigotes of L. amazonensis.Khedr et al. (2016) examined the ALA of two newfangled triterpenoids, ficupanduratin A and ficupanduratin B isolated from the fruits of Ficus pandurate Hance (Moraceae). These compounds showed virtuous affinity towards CB2 receptor, with supplanting values of 69.7 and 62.5%, respectively. Rebolledo et al. (2017) estimated the leishmanicidal efficacy of some selected medicinal species (T. procumbens, L. xuul, and P. andrieuxii), in vivo against L. Mexicana. Results depicted that these selective compounds displayed strong ALA (IC50>30 mg/mL) against L. Mexicana.Oghumu et al. (2017) surveyed the immunomodulatory assets of pentalinonsterol (PEN) and assessed its probability as an adjuvant. Further, results confirmed that PEN enhanced the expression of NF-κB and AP1 transcription factors and promoted BMDC-mediated production of IFN-γ by T-cells, henceforth could be castoff as a leishmanicidal agent.
Cancer Related to Herbs and Dietary Supplements: Online Table of Case Reports. Part 5 of 5
Published in Journal of Dietary Supplements, 2018
Safrole is extracted from the root-bark and fruit of the sassafras tree (Sassafras albidum) found in North America and Asia. It was frequently used as a flavoring agent in root beer and sassafras tea in North America until animal studies in the 1960s found that it was related to liver cancer in laboratory animals (Table 4). Mouse studies show that it not only crosses the placenta during gestation, but can also be transferred to newborns through the milk of lactating animals, and both scenarios resulted in gender-dependent increased cancer rates (Vesselinovitch, Rao, & Mihailovich, 1979). Safrole was administered by gastric intubation to pregnant and lactating C57 BL/6 J mice (120 ug/g body weight four times during gestation on days 12, 14, 16, and 18). Renal epithelial tumors were observed in 7% of female offspring exposed to safrole in utero. Among breastfed offspring, 34% (28/85) of males developed hepatocellular tumors compared to 2.5% (2/80) of females and 3% (3/100) of male controls by the 92nd week. Direct administration (gastric intubation) of safrole started at weaning age led to hepatocellular tumors in 48% (48/60) of females and 8% (8/60) of males over 92 weeks. The PubMed literature revealed only one reported case of a side effect in humans: excessive sweating after consuming sassafras tea (Haines, 1991).
Cytotoxicity of safrole in HepaRG cells: studies on the role of CYP1A2-mediated ortho-quinone metabolic activation
Published in Xenobiotica, 2019
Linlin Hu, Fei Wu, Jie He, Lingjun Zhong, Yifan Song, Hua Shao
Safrole is a natural compound named [l-allyl-3,4-(methylenedioxy)-benzene], which is a derivative of methylenedioxybenzenes and can be extracted from asarum sieboldii, betel oil (Piper betle L.), sassafras oils (Sassafras albidum Nutt.), and camphor oil (Cinnamomum camphora L.), etc. (Farag & Abo-Zeid, 1997). The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) categorizes safrole as a group 2B carcinogen, which means safrole is a documented rodent hepatocarcinogen (Chung et al., 2008). The biotransformation of relatively inert organic compounds to reactive metabolites (RMs) or reactive electrophilic intermediates, which is commonly referred to as metabolic activation or bioactivation, has been speculated to contribute toward certain drug-induced toxicities, including hepatotoxicity and others (Chen et al., 2011; Kalgutkar & Soglia, 2005). RMs via the activation of metabolic enzymes and the generation of RMs depended on the specific active structure of the parent compound (Fontana et al., 2005). According to the previous studies, the carcinogenicity of safrole is correlated to the formation of bioactive metabolites (Crampton et al., 1977). One bioactivation pathway previously proposed for safrole involves hydroxylation of the benzyl carbon, conjugation with sulfate, and then alkylation of DNA with displacement of the sulfate group (Liu et al., 2004; Ueng et al., 2004). However, several lines of evidence indicate a second pathway of metabolic activation occurs (Phillips et al., 1984; Yang et al., 2018). It may be the methylenedioxybenzenes moiety in safrole that could undergo metabolic activation to form the ortho-quinone intermediates (Murray, 2000). The formation of reactive ortho-quinone intermediates is mainly mediated by high levels of phase I drug metabolizing enzymes such as CYP450 in the liver (Bolton et al., 1994; Shi et al., 2015), which indicates that hepatocytes may be more readily attacked by the electrophilic ortho-quinone metabolites (Attwa et al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2003). These electrophilic intermediates have been reported to covalently modify the biomolecules, such as nucleic acids or proteins (Hecht et al., 2001; Monks & Jones, 2002), and such modification correlates with their toxicities (Chen et al., 2011). Previous reports suggest that safrole is primarily metabolized by CYP450 through many different ways and is a mechanism-based inhibitor of CYP1A2. Two glutathione (GSH) adducts have been recently reported after incubation of safrole with human liver microsomes (HLMs) (Yang et al., 2018). However, direct evidence that links the identification of CYP450 associated with the RMs and the related toxicity mechanisms in liver cell line is lacking.