Sassafras is a genus of three Extant taxon and one extinct species of deciduous in the family Lauraceae, native to eastern North America and eastern Asia.[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]
Description
Sassafras trees grow from tall with many slender
sympodial branches and smooth, orange-brown bark or yellow bark.
All parts of the plants are fragrant. The species are unusual in having three distinct
leaf patterns on the same plant: unlobed oval, bilobed (mitten-shaped), and trilobed (three-pronged); the leaves are hardly ever five-lobed.
[Noble Plant Image Gallery Sassafras (includes photo of five-lobed leaf)] Three-lobed leaves are more common in
Sassafras tzumu and
S. randaiense than in their North American counterparts, although three-lobed leaves often occur on
S. albidum. The young leaves and twigs are quite
mucilaginous and produce a citrus-like scent when crushed. The tiny, yellow
are generally six-petaled;
S. albidum and (the extinct)
S. hesperia are
dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate trees, while
S. tzumu and
S. randaiense have male and female flowers occurring on the same trees. The
fruit is a
drupe, blue-black when ripe.
File:Sassafras albidum, Sassafras pistillate flowers, Howard County, MD, Helen Lowe Metzman 2017-07-25-20.11 (38413696475).jpg|Pistillate (female) flowers
File:Sassafras albidum, Sassafras staminate flowers, Howard County, MD, Helen Lowe Metzman 2017-07-25-20.19 (24427586417).jpg|Staminate (male) flowers
The largest known sassafras tree in the world is in Owensboro, Kentucky, and is over high and in circumference.
Taxonomy
The genus
Sassafras was first described by the
botanist
Jan Presl in 1825.
The name "sassafras", applied by the botanist
Nicolas Monardes in 1569, comes from the French sassafras. Some sources claim it originates from the Latin saxifraga or : "stone-breaking"; "rock" + "to break").
Sassafras trees are not within the family
Saxifragaceae.
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.
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).
Taiwanese sassafras, Taiwan, is treated by some botanists in a distinct genus as Yushunia randaiensis (Hayata) Kamikoti, though this is not supported by recent genetic evidence, which shows Sassafras to be monophyletic.[Kamikoti, S. (1933). Ann. Rep. Taihoku Bot. Gard. 3: 78]
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
-
† Sassafras hesperia (Berry) – western North American, from the Eocene Klondike Mountain Formation of Washington and British Columbia;
East Asia
-
Sassafras tzumu (Hemsl.) Hemsl. – Chinese sassafras or tzumu, central and southwestern China
-
Sassafras randaiense (Hayata) Rehd. – Taiwan
Distribution and habitat
Many
Lauraceae are aromatic,
evergreen trees or shrubs adapted to high rainfall and humidity, but the genus
Sassafras is
deciduous. Deciduous sassafras trees lose all of their
leaves for part of the year, depending on variations in
.
In deciduous tropical Lauraceae, leaf loss coincides with the
dry season in tropical, subtropical and arid regions.
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.
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.
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 white-tailed deer and
. Other sassafras leaf browsers include
,
, and American black bears. Rabbits eat sassafras bark in winter.
will cut sassafras stems. Sassafras fruits are eaten by many species of birds, including
bobwhite quail,
, great crested flycatchers, phoebes,
,
grey catbird,
, pileated woodpeckers,
, thrushes,
, and northern mockingbirds. Some small mammals also consume sassafras fruits.
[This section incorporates text from a public domain work of the US government: ]
Toxicity
Sassafras oil contains
safrole, which may have a
effect.
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
and fire starters.
Culinary
Sassafras albidum is an important ingredient in some distinct foods of the US. It has been the main ingredient in traditional
and sassafras root teas, and the ground leaves of sassafras are a distinctive additive in Louisiana's
Cajun cuisine. Sassafras is used in filé powder, a common thickening and flavoring agent in Louisiana
gumbo. Methods of cooking with sassafras combine this ingredient native to America with traditional North American and European culinary techniques; they contribute to the unique
Creole cuisine, which is heavily influenced by the blend of cultures in Louisiana and other states along the Gulf coast.
Sassafras, once a key ingredient in commercial American root beers, is no longer used, as its oil was banned in 1960 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in all commercially mass-produced foods and medications. The FDA's directive was in response to health concerns about the carcinogenicity of safrole, a major constituent of sassafras oil, in animal studies.[
]
[2]
Sassafras leaves and flowers have also been used in salads, and to flavor fats or cure meats.
Traditional medicine
Numerous Native American tribes used the leaves of sassafras to treat wounds by rubbing the leaves directly into a wound and used different parts of the plant for many medicinal purposes such as treating acne, urinary disorders, and sicknesses that increased body temperature, such as high fevers.
East Asian types of sassafras such as
S. tzumu (chu mu) and
S. randaiense (chu shu) are used in Chinese medicine to treat
rheumatism and trauma.
Some modern researchers conclude that the oil, roots and bark of sassafras have
analgesic and
antiseptic properties. Different parts of the sassafras plant (including the leaves and stems, the bark, and the roots) have been used to treat
scurvy, skin sores, kidney problems, toothaches,
rheumatism, swelling,
menstruation disorders, sexually transmitted diseases,
bronchitis,
hypertension, and
dysentery. It is also used as a
fungicide,
dentifrice,
rubefacient,
diaphoretic,
perfume,
carminative and
sudorific.
[Tiffany Leptuck, "Medical Attributes of 'Sassafras albidum' – Sassafras"], Kenneth M. Klemow, Ph.D., Wilkes-Barre University, 2003] Before the twentieth century, Sassafras enjoyed a great reputation in the medical literature, but became valued for its power to improve the flavor of other medicines.
[Keeler, H. L. (1900). Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.]
Sassafras root was an early export from North America, as early as 1609.
Sassafras wood and oil were both used in dentistry. Early toothbrushes were crafted from sassafras twigs or wood because of its aromatic properties.
Wood
Sassafras albidum is often grown as an
ornamental tree for its unusual leaves and aromatic scent. Outside of its native area, it is occasionally cultivated in
Europe and elsewhere.
[U.S. Forest Service: Sassafras albidum (pdf file) ] The durable and beautiful wood of sassafras plants has been used in shipbuilding and furniture-making in North America, in Asia, and in Europe (once Europeans were introduced to the plant).
Sassafras wood was also used by Native Americans in the southeastern United States as a fire-starter because of the flammability of its natural oils found within the wood and the leaves.
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
. Many other trees contain similarly high percentages and their extracted oils are sometimes referred to as sassafras oil,
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.
Sassafras oil has also been used as a natural insect or pest deterrent, and in (such as the opium-based Godfrey's Cordial), and in homemade liquor to mask strong or unpleasant smells.
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.[Metcalf, Robert L. (2002). "Insect Control", Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH. ] These plants are primarily harvested for commercial purposes in Asia and Brazil.
External links
