Catalog of Herbs
James A. Duke in Handbook of Medicinal Herbs, 2018
Teas, made from the oil or root bark, have been applied to cancer, corns, osteosarcomas, tumors, and wens.4 Sassafras tea used in Appalachia as a diaphoretic and diuretic for bronchitis, gastritis, and indigestion, and to slow down the milk of nursing mothers. South Carolina blacks give it to children to “bring out the measles.”46 Tea also used for arthritis, acne, bronchitis, catarrh, dropsy, dysmenorrhea, dysentery, fever, gleet, gonorrhea, gout, hypertension, kidney trouble, mumps, nephrosis, ophthalmia, pneumonia, respiratory ailments, rheumatism, skin trouble, syphilis, and typhus.2,32,46 The herb is alterative, anodyne, antiseptic, aromatic, carminative, depurative, diaphoretic, demulcent, diuretic, emmenagogue, stimulant, and sudorific.28,12 Externally, sassafras has been used as a rubefacient on bruises, rheumatism, sprains, and swellings. Lewis and Elvin-Lewis11 cite an interesting cancer “cure”, based on a carcinogen, that echos some of the cancer-preventitive suggestions recently emanating from congress and the NIH: “Let him drink Sassafras Tea every Morning, live temperately, upon light and innocent Food; and abstain entirely from strong liquor. The Way to prevent this Calamity, is, to be very sparing in eating Pork, to forbear all salt, and high season’d Meats, and life chiefly upon the Garden, The Orchard, and the Hen-House (cancer cure in Virginia — 1734).”
The Americas
Michael J. O’Dowd in 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
K. Hüsnü Can Başer, Gerhard Buchbauer in 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.
Risk assessment of herbal supplements containing ingredients that are genotoxic and carcinogenic
Published in Critical Reviews in Toxicology, 2019
Gerhard Prinsloo, Francois Steffens, Jacques Vervoort, Ivonne M.C.M. Rietjens
Alkenylbenzenes (ABs), especially allylalkoxybenzenes including compounds like safrole, methyleugenol and others (Figure 3) occur in a large number of plants including for example basil (Ocimum basilicum), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), mace (Myristica fragrans), parsley (Petroselinum crispum) and dill (Anethum graveolens) (Rietjens et al. 2014). These plants are used for herbal medicinal products as curing agents in a variety of diseases including for example treatment of gastrointestinal disorders (Farzaei et al. 2013; Mahomoodally and Mothoorah 2014; Rather et al. 2016). ABs have been shown to result in formation of DNA adducts and induction of liver tumors via formation of reactive 1′-sulfoxy metabolites (Boberg et al. 1983; Wiseman et al. 1987; Rietjens et al. 2014). The use of safrole, methyleugenol, and estragole as pure substances in foodstuff has been prohibited in the EU from September 2008 onwards (European Commission 2008). In the USA already in 1960 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prohibited the use of pure safrole and sassafras oil (content of safrole >80%) in food (FDA Ban 21 CFR 189, 180; revised 1 April 2008) due to the potential carcinogenicity of safrole as demonstrated in rodent studies. For the AB estragole DNA adducts produced in V79 cells at 1000 mM were still detected 25-h after the recovery period (Gori et al. 2012). In another study on estragole, a rapid drop in total adduct formation occurred within 7 days after dosing and was followed by a relatively constant level over the next 140 days (Smith et al. 2002).
Cancer Related to Herbs and Dietary Supplements: Online Table of Case Reports. Part 5 of 5
Published in Journal of Dietary Supplements, 2018
After the 1960s studies revealing increased risk of liver cancer in rats, sassafras and its derivatives (e.g., safrole) were defined as adulterated products by the FDA and prohibited for sale in the United States. Sassafras root-bark is sold online as a flavoring for homemade root beer and teas.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Monophyly
- Mucilage
- Safrole
- Carcinogen
- Sassafras Tzumu
- Sassafras Albidum
- Dioecy
- Fruit
- Drupe
- Toothbrush