Sassafras: Medicinal Friend or Foe? 

The tree was originally used for its medicinal purposes and as a spice by Indigenous people until colonizers arrived and took some back to England. Sassafras was first used for wood in the colonies, as it was a reliable hard wood and good for building. People would come to the Americas just to get the wood, which started what was called “the Great Sassafras Hunts.” This also led the colonizers to start trading with the Indigenous people, which led to the discovery of the plant’s medicinal uses. When the medicinal purposes of the plant came to light, the English started to brew it into teas. They marketed the tea’s to be able to cure all common ailments and, once it was rumored to be anti-aging, trade boomed. The oldest sassafras tree recorded is located in Owensboro, Kentucky, being around 100 feet tall and 21 feet in circumference. The tree is theorized to be 300 years old, despite the average lifespan of sassafras being around 100 years. You can identify it by its leaves that tend to have three lobes on each leaf like a t-Rex or chicken foot—although it can also have leaves that look like a mitten, with it having only two lobes. When you crush the leaves in your hand it will smell very sweet, like root beer! This is because, in the original root beer, sassafras roots were used as a sweetener but were later banned in the drink after it was revealed that the plant contained safrole. Safrole is a chemical compound that has been found to cause liver cancer in rats and miscarriages in women. So, when this was discovered in the 1960’s, the FDA banned the chemical in foods despite it being a popular additive at the time. Sassafras tea was also later also banned in the 1970’s, putting an end to sassafras in foods, but it is still considered a medicinal plant for most.