Origin

This is the product of Sassafras officinale (Nees), Laurus Sassafras (Linn.), a tree of medium size, growing in all parts of the United States, and said to extend also into Mexico. The U. S Pharmacopoeia directs the bark of the root, which is the part always kept in our shops; the British Pharmacopoeia the whole root, under the name of Sassafras. As the wood constitutes a large part of the root, and possesses very little medicinal virtue, it is evident that our national standard is correct in excluding it.

Sensible Properties and Solubility. The bark, as kept in the shops, is in rather small, irregular fragments, sometimes with, sometimes without epidermis, light, spongy, brittle, of a reddish-brown colour inclining to that of cinnamon, lighter on the broken surface, of a fragrant odour, and a sweetish, somewhat pungent, aromatic taste. These properties it yields moderately to water, and much more freely to alcohol.

Active Principle. The virtues of sassafras depend exclusively on a Volatile Oil (Oleum Sassafras, U. S.), which is obtained separate by distillation with water. it is of a yellow colour, becoming reddish with age, somewhat heavier than water, and possessed in a high degree of the sensible properties of the bark.

Effects on the System

I have placed sassafras bark among the alteratives, not so much on account of its real properties, as from the circumstance that it is almost exclusively used in association with sarsaparilla, guaiacum wood, etc. in its effects on the system, it is more closely allied to the aromatics than to any other medicines, being an agreeable stomachic stimulant and carminative. its oil, however, appears to find a readier entrance into the circulation than most of the other aromatic oils, and, therefore, to act more decidedly on the system at large, which it gently stimulates. The bark taken in warm infusion, with a large proportion of water, while it moderately excites the circulation, sometimes increases perspiration; and hence is generally placed among the stimulating diaphoretics.

Therapeutic Application

A tea made of the bark of sassafras root has long been employed in this country as an agreeable beverage, and under the notion also that it purifies the blood. it was probably adopted by the profession from popular usage, and formerly had considerable reputation in secondary syphilis and syphiloid affections, cutaneous eruptions, and chronic rheumatism. At present, however, it is employed almost exclusively as an adjuvant to sarsaparilla, guaiacum, and mezereon, in the compound preparations of those alteratives, in which, if it answers no other useful purpose, it at least proves serviceable by its agreeable flavour. I am inclined, however, to the opinion that, though feeble, it has alterative properties in a slight degree; as a persevering popular usage of any remedy is generally based upon an experience of its effects; and medicines which, in the caprice of professional action, have been abandoned and readopted, have sometimes retained, in the mean time, a firm hold upon the favourable opinion of the multitude.

The bark of sassafras root, or the root itself, is an ingredient in the compound decoction and fluid extract of sarsaparilla, and the decoction of guaiacum wood; and the oil is used to flavour the compound syrup of sarsaparilla. An infusion of the bark may be made in the proportion of half an ounce to a pint of water, and used ad libitum. The oil may be given as a gastric stimulant or carminative in the dose of from two to ten drops.