[Sca-cooks] OOP Question -Sassafras

[Terry Decker]

Sassafras  was certainly known in the latter half of the 16th Century.

A reference to sassafras appears in Thomas Hariot's "A Brief and True Report 
of the New Found Land of Virginia" (1588), which was meant to recruit people 
to the Roanoke Colony.
"    Sassafras. The inhabitants call it winauk, a wood of the most pleasant 
and sweet smell and of rare virtues in medicine for the cure of many 
diseases. It is far better and has more uses than the wood which is called 
Guaiacum, or lignum vitae. For the description, manner of using, and 
manifold virtues of it, I refer you to the book of Monardus, translated and 
entitled in English, The Joyful News from the West Indies."

I believe the text entitled "The Joyful News from the West Indies" is an 
English version of Monardes, Historia Medicinal, 1574.

Bear



Sassafras might not be OOP---when they settled Jamestown in 1607, sassafras 
was one of the things they were looking for, which implies there was already 
a market for it.  I believe it was used medicinally.

Nancy Kiel

  Does anyone have a local source for sassafras root and bark?  I have a
  friend who would like to experiment with the real thing (not the extract)
  to make root beer.

  It is not something we have out here on the west coast (if I were in the
  town I grew up in I could go out and dig some up!)

  Maeva in An Tir