Why Is Sassafras Banned? (2024)

FAQs

Why Is Sassafras Banned? ›

Well, sassafras and sarsaparilla both contain safrole

The history of Root Beer and Sarsaparilla

Sarsaparilla was made from the Sarsaparilla vine, while Root Beer, roots of the sassafras tree. These days, Root Beer recipes do not include sassafras as the plant has been found to cause serious health issues.

This practice waned during the 1960s and early 1970s when it was reported that the chemical safrole found in sassafras caused cancer in laboratory rats. These findings prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban the use of safrole in foods and beverages (including our beloved root beer).

Safrole, the aromatic oil found in sassafras roots and bark that gave traditional root beer its distinctive flavor, was banned in commercially mass-produced foods and drugs by the FDA in 1960.

The safrole in sassafras root bark and oil can cause cancer and liver damage. Consuming just 5 mL of sassafras oil can kill an adult. Sassafras can cause sweating and hot flashes. High amounts can cause vomiting, high blood pressure, hallucinations, and other severe side effects.

In some cases, Root Beer is still made with Sassafras root. For example, the popular American fast food restaurant and their famous beverage A&W Root Beer are made with concentrated sasafrass root extract. Many craft breweries across the country do make traditional styles of root beer, like Maine or Boyland brands.

With a flavor strikingly similar to sassafras, wintergreen—already an ingredient in root beer—made a ready replacement. Today, most root beers contain neither sassafras nor wintergreen, as it is not very shelf-stable. Now, they are typically made with artificial flavors instead.

Indigenous Uses

Sassafras had many medicinal uses as a tea to purify blood and heal ailments including skin diseases, rheumatism, venereal disease, and ague. The roots and berries made a tea to treat nausea, fevers, fatigue, gas pains, menstrual pains, and syphilis.

While the amount of sassafras that could potentially cause cancer in humans remains unknown, one cup of strong sassafras tea is reported to contain as much as 200 mg of safrole, an amount that is four times higher than the amount considered potentially hazardous to humans if consumed regularly.

Sassafras leaves and flowers have also been used in salads, and to flavor fats or cure meats. The young twigs can also be eaten fresh or dried. Additionally, the subterranean portion of the plant can be peeled, dried and boiled to make tea.

Why can't you buy sassafras? ›

Well, sassafras and sarsaparilla both contain safrole, a compound recently banned by the FDA due to its carcinogenic effects. Safrole was found to contribute to liver cancer in rats when given in high doses, and thus it and sassafras or sarsaparilla-containing products were banned.

CARBONATED WATER, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CARAMEL COLOR, SODIUM BENZOATE (PRESERVATIVE), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, QUILLAIA EXTRACT.

Sassafras is the quintessence of root beer, but wintergreen is a close second. Each has a cooling, candy-like essence, and each is strong but not robust. Licorice and anise have a tingling quality similar to wintergreen, but they can easily smother other ingredients.

Cold Stream Farm is the proud purveyor of wholesale Sassafras from our land and headquarters in Free Soil, Michigan. Our live sassafras plants are typically only available in the spring, with wholesale and retail shipments for customers throughout the United States.

Both beverages are named after their distinct differences in ingredients when they were first made. Sarsaparilla was made from the Sarsaparilla vine, while Root Beer, roots of the sassafras tree. These days, Root Beer recipes do not include sassafras as the plant has been found to cause serious health issues.

In addition to its value to wildlife, sassafras provides wood and bark for a variety of commercial and domestic uses. Tea is brewed from the bark of roots. The leaves are used in thickening soups. The orange wood has been used for cooperage, buckets, posts, and furniture (7).

If there is a quintessential flavor that embodies New Orleans when you taste it, it is the taste of Barq's root beer, which is made from sarsaparilla instead of from sassafras as other, inferior, root beers are made. Sassafras is filé.

Safrole-containing sassafras root bark is still available, but for legal purposes, it can only be sold as a topical skin wash or potpourri. Sassafras tea is a beverage that's made by boiling the root bark of the sassafras tree. It can be combined with other herbs like ginger, cinnamon, cloves, or aniseed.

Historically, root beer was created using the root of the sassafras tree while sarsaparilla used the sarsaparilla vine as it's main ingredient. Sarsaparilla is known for having a more bitter flavor, which led to the creation of root beer for a more sweet and enhanced flavor.