Can Sassafras root still be used? I thought I read somewhere, that it use was discouraged due to lead poisoning. That's why the store bought root beer doesn't taste the same as it did 30 years ago. I can remember boiling the roots and making Sassafras tea. I was expecting A&W root beer. Not even close.

-- BigDaddy23-2 (DSev347385@aol.com), January 18, 2000

Answers

The government is always telling us that something is unhealthy. My grandmother faithfully dug up Sassafras roots and made tea as tonic at least twice each spring, and sometimes again in the fall. She lived to be almost 90. Her mother before her did the same thing and lived to be 99. And HER mother did it too and lived to be over 100. It didn't seem to bother them!

-- A.C.Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), January 19, 2000.

Looks like the longevity rate was dropping over the generations, maybe it was the sassafras tea!

-- Gayle (gvoshell@d0l.net), January 19, 2000.

This information is from "PETERSON FIELD GUIDES - EDIBLE WILD PLANTS," copyright 1977, page 210.

"Warning: Sassafras has recently been proven to contain a chemical that cause cancer in laboratory test animals."

The "carcinogenic" compound is called safrole, a contituent of the sassafras oil. There may not be enough oil in sassafras tea to render it harmful. Who knows how much sassafras was fed to those animals, 770 times the amount in tea 13 time a day every day?

There are many, many, other plants that make great teas that I personally wouldn't take a chance with sassafras tea.

At the grocery store, in the tea section, there is sassafras tea with the safrole removed. I don't know if it taste the same as homemade sassafras tea.

I hope this information helped.

-- Rich (pntbeldyk@wirefire.com), January 19, 2000.

There's a Sassafras Festival in Vernon, Indiana(South Central) usually the third weekend in April. They sell the roots for $1.00 a small bundle. There is a Civil War re-enactment and a Blue and Gray Ball, a ham 'n bean dinner and homemade pies. There's also lots of booths to shop, and the Historical Society's Museum. My grandpa drank sassafras tea all his life. He was 84 when he died from unnatural causes not sassafras tea. I have a recipie for sassafras jelly. It's made with honey. It is delicios. e-mail me if you want it.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), January 22, 2000.

I have read the same info on the root. you can also make the tea from the bark. it's not as strong tasting but it's just as good. i personally still make the tea from the root. I don't always believe all that is told to us by government studies.

-- lisa liddle (lisasnat@bellsouth.net), December 14, 2000.

Is the term "Government Studies" an oxymoron?

-- sam hay (cherokee_scott@yahoo.com), August 03, 2001.

As a small boy my great grandmother made sassafrass tea as a cure for everything from collic to wounds that were hard to heal. The medicinal value of sassafras is widely know among the older generation. All of my family are long lived with no history of cancer or liver disease. All lived to there 80s and 90s with very little ailments to speak of at all. I myself drink sassafras tea regularly and find it calming. You won't find a health or life insurance policy in my name anywhere. It must be the sassafras.

You may consider that sassafras has a history of medicinal benefits. The govt. gets billions of dollars a year in lobby money from drug and insurance corps. Hmmmm? It makes me wonder why they should ban sassafras for containing saffrol because it supposedly causes cancer. Why not ban black pepper or nut meg? Both also contain saffrol. A recent Govt. report states that the air we breath in our home is 4 1/2 times more carcinogenic than sassafras tea. Hmmmmm? A common 3.2 bear is 10 times more carcinogenic. Hmmmmm? I'll keep drinking my sassafras tea.

-- William (sassafrasshaman@yahoo.com), April 09, 2002.