Sassafras

This time of year is a little bit late to be talking about sassafras, but I want to get it in before the end of the season! Let’s dive into the plant responsible for the root beer flavor we’re all familiar with:

Plant Profile:

Scientific Name: Sassafras albidum (There is also a western species, Sassafras hesperia)

Preferred Habitat: Sandy soil, in and around woodlands, near lakeshores (in the Great Lakes region), and around oak trees.

Edible Parts: All parts (roots, shoots, leaves, flowers, bark) have medicinal or culinary value.

Distribution: The entire eastern half of the United States

Harvest Season: Summer to early fall

Key Identifiers: Leaves when mature have three distinct lobes (see images), when younger look like a mitten, and when first emerging look small and rounded. If you have doubts, tear a leaf and smell it. Sassafras has a very distinct fruit loops smell!

Toxic Look-Alikes: There are no notable look-alikes, however: sassafras contains safrole in it’s oil a compound that is used to make the drug ecstasy (MDMA) and has been listed as a carcinogen by the FDA (take what you will from that).

Nutrition: As is common with wild edible foods, there is no research that I can find on the specific nutrient content of sassafras. However, here are some potential health benefits:

• Reduces Inflammation

• Diuretic

• Compounds in sassafras can fight infections

• Traditionally has been used as a tonic and blood purifier

• Some evidence suggests that safrole may actually help prevent cancer (although no studies have been done yet on this) since other related compounds do the same.

So sassafras is a complicated plant.

On one hand, it seems to have potential health benefits and amazing flavors, but on the other hand, the FDA lists it as a carcinogen.

Without getting too deep into politics, let’s take into consideration a few important notes:

• The last tests on safrole were done in the 1950s/60s.

• Safrole is a compound that exists in the oil of sassafras trees.

• The studies gave safrole to rats at high dosages and the results indicated that it could have been a weak liver cancer inducer at the rates they were given.

• The studies were not studying sassafras, they were studying the concentrated safrole itself.

• There are several related compounds to safrole that actively prevent cancers, and there is an emerging theory that in lower amounts, safrole can do the same (although I have yet to see a study on this).

• Sassafras tea when drunk on occasion will not contain enough safrole to be considered an unhealthy amount.

• Toxicology is misunderstood. There are many compounds we consume on a regular basis that are listed as carcinogens (caffeine for example).

All that to say, don’t let the warnings about sassafras prevent you from enjoying it in moderation. Many wild foods are subject to fear-mongering.

With that out of the way, how do we use sassafras?

The best way in my opinion is to take advantage of the unique flavors. The leaves have a weirdly fruit-loop scent, and the roots smell distinctly of root beer. Tea can be made from any of those parts, and I’ve seen people make wild fermented sodas from it as well for homemade root beer! Some people even make a sassafras jelly which sounds like something I need to try.

Digging up the roots isn’t too difficult on small saplings. I just try to leave most of the roots intact so the tree stays alive and just take a small amount each time.

While safrole has its controversies, you can still buy sassafras bark with the safrole removed if you want the other potential health benefits.

If someone needs ideas for scientific research, wild foods are a GREAT place to start! (Please I’m begging you).

Sassafras has not been bred out into different cultivars, there are different species of sassafras. Native species are more well-adapted to our climate, and many old-world plants have a bad history of becoming highly invasive in the Americas. I would recommend growing these American species and not the Asian species:

Sassafras albidum (If you live in the eastern US)

Sassafras hesperia (If you live in the western US)

I couldn’t find any of the hesperia species for sale, but the albidum species can be found here:

Cold Stream Farm

Grow Native

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