Origin

Sarsaparilla consists of the roots of different plants belonging to the genus Smilax. it was formerly referred to Smilax Sarsaparilla, which is indigenous in this country; but it is now believed that none of the commercial drug is obtained from that species. The particular plants which are known, or believed to furnish it, are Smilax medica growing in Mexico, and S. syphilitica, S. officinalis, and S. papyracea, which inhabit different parts of the northern section of South America, especially New Granada, "Venezuela, and the northern provinces of Brazil. All these species are climbing, briery plants, having long slender roots, which proceed in all directions from a common rootstalk or rhizome.

Several varieties of sarsaparilla exist in commerce, distinguished by the names of the places of shipment, or the region whence they are derived; as the Honduras, Vera Cruz or Tampico, Jamaica, Caracas, Brazil, etc.; and some importance has been attached to these designations, as indicative of superior or inferior quality in the drug; but I believe that, in relation to the real value of sarsaparilla as a medicine, it is to be judged, not by the place of growth, or any distinctive exterior characters, but solely by the degree in which it possesses the peculiar taste of the medicine; so that the roots which have no taste whatever may be looked on as inert.

As sarsaparilla is usually imported, it consists either of whole roots, including rootstalk and radicals, folded lengthwise, or of the latter exclusively, separated from the rhizome, and in either case bound together, in large cylindrical bundles, by circular turns, either of the rootlets themselves, or of some flexible stem. in some, however, of the commercial varieties, the whole roots come separately; large numbers of them being loosely packed in bales.

Sensible Properties and Solubility. The rootstalk, when attached, is usually rejected. The proper roots are several feet in length, about as thick as a goose-quill on the average, flexible, generally wrinkled longitudinally, and of a grayish-brown or reddish-brown colour externally, and whitish or slightly reddish within. They consist of a central pith, a layer of ligneous fibre, and outside of this a cortical portion, covered with the coloured epidermis. From the tenacity of the woody layer, they can often be split for great portions of their length.

In its ordinary state, sarsaparilla has little or no smell; but it becomes distinctly odorous in decoction. its taste is at first simply mucilaginous, or but very slightly bitter; but, if of good quality, it soon becomes, on being chewed, decidedly acrid, and leaves a durable and disagreeable sense of acrimony in the mouth and fauces. It imparts its virtues slowly to cold water, more rapidly to boiling water, and still more readily to diluted alcohol, which is the proper menstruum. Water, unless in very large quantity, seems to be incapable of exhausting the root; and by long boiling its virtues are sensibly impaired.

Chief Constituents. The active constituent of sarsaparilla is probably a principle first isolated by Dr. Palotta in 1824, and variously named. The proper title for it is sarsaparillin; but it has been called also paraglin, smilacine, salseparine, and parillinic acid. It is a white crystallizable substance, inodorous, of little taste in the solid state, but bitter, acrid, and nauseous in solution, very slightly soluble in cold water, more soluble in boiling water, and very soluble in alcohol, especially when heated. Ether and the volatile oils also dissolve it. Its aqueous solution, like the decoction of sarsaparilla itself, has the property of frothing very much when agitated. It is said to be volatilized at the temperature of a salt-bath; and this fact accounts for the effect of decoction in impairing the virtues of the root. For the mode of preparing sarsaparillin, see the U. S. Dispensatory. It has been given internally, and found to be borne well by the stomach in the dose of six grains. Nine grains caused nausea, and a feeling of weight in the epigastrium. According to Dr. Palotta, in doses of from two to thirteen grains, it occasions a sense of constriction in the throat, nausea, and diaphoresis, and depresses the circulation.

Besides sarsaparillin, the root contains a minute proportion of volatile oil, some resin and extractive, and a large proportion of starch. With this last principle its medicinal activity was at one time thought to be associated; and hence originated the long boiling to which it was formerly subjected, and which was retained by some of the British authorities until the consolidation of their different Pharmacopoeias into one. The starch is wholly inert, and the long boiling only injurious.

Effects on the System

In the ordinary medicinal doses, sarsaparilla produces little sensible effect. It is thought, and probably with justice, moderately to promote perspiration and the secretion of urine. In this respect, it resembles most other acrid substances which enter the circulation. The system is intolerant of their presence; and hence the eliminating functions are made specially susceptible to their excitant influence. Sarsaparilla, however, is almost always administered with a large quantity of liquid; and it is not easy to determine how much of the effect on the secretions is to be ascribed to the medicine, and how much to the vehicle. In larger doses, it produces feelings of gastric oppression, nausea, and sometimes vomiting. Its sensible effects, however, are not sufficient to explain the therapeutic advantages ascribed to it; and they who claim for it extraordinary value as a medicine, must refer its curative effects to an alterative influence. Like the other alteratives already vol. ii.-28 considered, it may have the property of stimulating the normal functions of disintegration and repair into increased activity, thereby removing gradually the substratum of the morbid action, and the disease along with it.