HERB - Re: [Herbal_G] Sassafras

[Rauthulfr]

Greetings from Rauthulfr
One should expect that a goodly number of New World plants were brought 
into European Pharmacopeia in period and there is no reason to exclude 
sassafras as one of these.  After all, folks like Nicolas Monardes were 
working on the New World "Materia Medica" in the mid-sixteenth 
century.  The jump in this case is that between the period ingredients 
existing, and something resembling root beer existing in period.  Certainly 
there may have been developments from tinctured sassafras beverages into a 
non-medicinal beverage later on.  But as with many herbal medicinals, their 
uses changed much over time.  One of the "errors of logic" which I've seen 
in A&S competitions is working backwards from a final product through the 
documentation to prove that the particular product existed in period.  To 
some extent this follows the old SCA maxim: If they would have had it, they 
would have used it.  The extension of that maxim according to this logic is 
that they had the stuff and used it like this project has.

The challenge is not to document the ingredients for root beer, the 
challenge is to discover its presence prior to 1600 or 1650 (depending upon 
which Kingdom you live in (Ansteorra tends to hold to 1600; An Tir holds to 
1650, for example.))

YIS
R




At 12:25 AM 10/25/00 -0700, you wrote:
>well to tired to dig really deep
>but  there may be confusion .
>i have found sassafras and sarsaparilla (saspirilla??)
>the later is  told of as follows
>history and folk lore
>brought from the new world in 1563 to Spain ....
>thought to be good for syphilis......
>over rated claims ....
>much used for skin complaints ...
>root was the original flavouring for root beer.
>
>encyclopedia of medical plants
>Andrew chevalier
>DK publishing
>ISBN 0-7894-0672
>1st American Ed 1996


RauthulfR Meistari inn Orthstori (OL, MC)
An Tir Kingdom Chirurgeon
or, non-SCA: Michael Wolfe M. A. I. S. AB-



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