[Sca-cooks] OOP Question -Sassafras

Tue Jul 19 06:39:55 PDT 2005

Here is what the opnline OED has to say about sassafras.

 1. a. A small tree, Sassafras officinale (N.O. Laurine?), also called Sassafras Laurel and Ague-tree, with green apetalous flowers and dimorphous leaves, native in North America, where it is said to have been discovered by the Spaniards in 1528.
  The name is frequently applied (chiefly with defining word) to trees of other genera which have similar medicinal properties; e.g.Australian or Tasmanian sassafras (Atherosperma moschata), see PLUME-NUTMEG; Brazilian sassafras (Nectandra Puchury), see PICHURIM; Cayenne sassafras (Laurelia sempervirens); oriental sassafras (Sassafras Parthenoxylon); swamp sassafras (Magnolia glauca). 

  1577 FRAMPTON Joyfull Newes II. 46 Of the Tree that is brought from the Florida, whiche is called Sassafras. 1597 GERARDE Herbal III. cxxxvi. 1341 The roote of Sassafras hath power to comfort the liuer. 1622 CAPT. SMITH New Eng. Trials 260 About three hogsheads of Beuer skins and some Saxefras. 1641 R. EVELIN in Descr. New Albion (1648) 21 There are Cedars, Cypresse, and Sassafras. 1666 J. DAVIES Hist. Caribby Isles 47 They afford Sandal-wood, Guiacum, and Sasafras, all of which are so well known. 1684 PENN Let. in Academy 11 Jan. (1896) 36/3 The trees that grow here are the Mulberry,..chesnut, Ash, Sarsafrax. 1726 G. SHELVOCKE Voy. round World (1757) 54 The sassafras, so much esteemed in Europe. 1745 P. THOMAS Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 12 Sassafrass is here in great Plenty. 1817-18 COBBETT Resid. U.S. (1822) 5 The Sassafras in flower, or, whatever else it is called. It resembles the Elder flower a good deal. 1856 BRYANT Ind. Story x, And there hangs on the sassafras, broken and bent, One tress of the well known hair. 1887 T. N. PAGE Ole Virginia, etc. (1893) 140 An old field all grown up in sassafras.

    b. The wood or timber of this tree. 

  1728 Rec. Early Hist. Boston (1883) VIII. 222 No Popler,..Sassifax, Black ash, Basswood, or Ceder Shall be Corded up. 1900 19th Ann. Rep. U.S. Bureau Amer. Ethnol. 1897-98 I. 422 Sassafras is tabued as fuel among the Cherokee..perhaps for the practical reason that it is apt to pop out of the fire when heated. 1921 C. C. DEAM Trees of Indiana 165 Floors were made of sassafras to keep out the rats and mice.

    2. a. The dried bark of this tree, used medicinally as an alterative; also an infusion of this. 

  1577 FRAMPTON Joyfull Newes II. 50 Many of them that had Tertians did take Water of the Sassafras. 1605 B. JONSON Volpone II. ii, No Indian drug had ere beene famed, Tabacco, Sassafras not named. 1714 Fr. Bk. of Rates 96 Sax-a-fras per 100 Weight, 05 00. 1822 LAMB Elia Ser. I. Praise Chimney-Sweepers, A composition, the groundwork of which I have understood to be the sweet wood yclept sassafras. 1837 R. ELLIS Laws & Regul. Customs III. 405 Sassafras, is the bark of the Lauris Sassafras. 1863 Rio Abajo Weekly Press (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 14 Apr. 2/3 Sassafras.Those who use this drink will find [etc.]. 1871 E. EGGLESTON Hoosier Schoolmaster 88 He drank his glass of water, having declined even her sassafras. 1912 M. NICHOLSON Hoosier Chron. 44 Sassafras in the spring, and a few doses of quinine in the fall,..were all the medicine that any good Hoosier needed.

    b. oil of sassafras = sassafras oil (see 3). 

  1753 CHAMBERS Cycl. Supp. s.v. Oil, The oil of sassafras is peculiarly liable to crystallization in certain circumstances. 1838 T. THOMSON Chem. Org. Bodies 479 Oil of Sassafras is obtained from the root of the laurus sassafras.

    3. Comb., as sassafras-bark, -bush, -chips, -pith, -root, -tree, -wood; sassafras laurel = sense 1; sassafras nut (see PICHURIM); sassafras oil, an oil distilled from the root of the common sassafras, from the bark of the Tasmanian sassafras, or from the sassafras nut; sassafras soap U.S., a soap scented with sassafras; sassafras tea, an infusion of sassafras formerly used in making saloop.

   1681 GREW Mus?um II. I. i. 180 Being well chewed, it hath the self same Tast with that of *Sassafras-Barque.

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1848 G. C. FURBER Twelve Months Volunteer 54 The field, or the larger part of it, growing up with tall weeds and *sassafras bushes. 1944 T. D. CLARK Pills, Petticoats & Plows 261 The graveyard is scraped bare of crab grass,..Johnson grass and sassafras bushes to give them a ?cared-for? appearance.
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 1875 Ure's Dict. Arts III. 543 [Recipe for ?Athenian Hair-wash?.] *Sassafras chips.
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 1878 HOBLYN Dict. Med. s.v., S. officinale, or *Sassafras Laurel, grows in North America.
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 1830 LINDLEY Nat. Syst. Bot. 30 The *Sassafras nuts of the London shops are the fruit of the Laurus Puceri.
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 1800 Misc. Tracts in Asiat. Ann. Reg. 74/1 The sassafras tree, the bark of which yields the costly coelilawang, and all its roots the *sassafras oil.
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 1861 BENTLEY Man. Bot. 631 *Sassafras pith is used in America as a demulcent like quince seeds.
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 1607 in 3rd Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. 53/2 Our easiest and richest commodity being *sassafras roots, were gathered up by the sailors. 1875 T. W. HIGGINSON Hist. U.S. vii. 51 Gosnold went back to England with a cargo of sassafras-root.
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 1860 J. G. HOLLAND Miss Gilbert's Career 108 Arthur took his accustomed seat at the head of the table, with Leonora at his right hand,..[in an] atmosphere of *sassafras-soap. 1863 B. TAYLOR H. Thurston I. 256 An old woman with two sentimental daughters, who..always smelt of sassafras-soap.
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 1783 M. GARTHSHORE in Med. Commun. I. 245 She..drank *sassafras tea. 1817 T. DEAN in Indiana Hist. Soc. Publ. (1918) VI. 324 We took some bread and sassafras tea. 1960 I. WALLACH Absence of Cello 41 Perry sipped a cup of sassafras tea.
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 1597 GERARDE Herbal III. cxxxvi. 1341 The *Sassafras tree. 1864-5 WOOD Homes without H. xiv. (1868) 3 The insect called Saturnia promethea, which lives on the Sassafras-tree.
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 1681 tr. Belon's Myst. Physick 16 One dram or two of *Sassafrax>From: Terry Decker <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
>Date: Tue Jul 19 07:28:34 CDT 2005
>To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
>Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] OOP Question -Sassafras

>The native range of sassafras is roughly that of the Eastern hardwood 
>forest, from the Canadian border into northern Florida forming a roughly V 
>shape reagion across the midwest and south with the point in eastern 
>Oklahoma.  The westernmost extent of the Eastern hardwood forest can be 
>found at what used to be Platt National Park in Sulphur, OK.
>
>The Spanish landed 1,500 colonists in the Pensacola area in 1559, who moved 
>to Port Royal Sound (later part of the English colony of South Carolina) due 
>to hostilities with the native tribes.  This is in the southernmost extent 
>of Sassafras albidum and 15 years prior to the initial publication of 
>Historia Medical.  I haven't chased the actual publication history of 
>sassafras, but I would suspect this colony is the beginning of the European 
>use of the plant.  Until somebody checks, take this as speculation.
>
>Bear
>
>> I'd be interested in seeing more details of this. If I'm correct, 
>> sassafras is a New World plant, and except for possibly Florida, I don't 
>> think it grows where the Spanish and Portuguese were. So where would it 
>> have come from to get to Europe to develop a market before the English New 
>> World colonies? Bear, do you have more info on this, such as the native 
>> range of sassafras?
>>
>> Stefan
>
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