[Sca-cooks] medicinal recipies

Carol Smith eskesmith at hotmail.com
Wed Nov 15 18:53:48 PST 2006


Again, CFR 21 lists camphor (from the tree) as GRAS for food use, provided 
it's safrole free (less than 10 ppm is considered "free").  Used in very 
limited quantity as a flavor, it is probably pretty safe, but is main use 
seems to be an active ingredient in cough medicines.  (I didn't read up on 
that aspect of it, though.)

Regards,
Brekke


>From: Lilinah <lilinah at earthlink.net>
>Reply-To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
>To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
>Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] medicinal recipies
>Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2006 12:32:08 -0800
>
>Bear wrote:
> >  > Camphor would be Cinnamomum camphora. When i mentioned this to a
> >  > chemist friend, he was rather disturbed and said that it should not
> >  > be eaten and that it causes liver damage. He suggested substituting
> >  > menthol (NOT mint). Menthol is used in many products, like candy,
> >  > mouthwash, toothpaste, etc. so it is safe to consume in small
> >  > quantities. I don't know if druggists sell it (i know they used to
> >  > sell wintergreen oil - i don't know if they still do), or if you'd
> >  > have to get it from a chemical supply house or commercial flavor
> >  > manufacturer...
> >  >
> >  > Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
> >  > the persona formerly known as Anahita
> >
> >Camphor can cause liver damage, but that is normally from prolonged
> >exposure.  Adults can take up to 2 mg/kg of body mass without noticeable
> >effect.  It can be extremely toxic to small children and infants.  It's 
>also
> >not recommended for pregenant women.  You should be able to get it from a
> >druggist.
> >
> >Reading over some of the survey info for poison control, I'd be willing 
>to
> >expirement with camphor as a spice, but I wouldn't want to use it in a
> >feast.
>
>This is all good to read, and rather as i suspected - i.e., i didn't
>know the exact amount, but i figured that a tiny quantity once or
>twice a year would probably not harm me. I'm not much of a drinker
>(although i've had hangovers 3 times in 57 years) and don't have and
>have never had any form of hepatitis, so i assume my liver is in
>decent shape.
>
>I've also considered experimenting with alkanet, which was used to
>color some foods in period (fat soluble, not water or alcohol
>soluble). It is now used as a fabric dye, and was used in the first
>half or so of the 20th C. to color lipstick.
>
>And there are some recipes in the Arabic language corpus that call
>for coloring nuts and salt blue with indigo.
>
>How/where would i find out about toxicity issues with these substances?
>--
>Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
>the persona formerly known as Anahita
>_______________________________________________
>Sca-cooks mailing list
>Sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
>http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/sca-cooks-ansteorra.org





More information about the Sca-cooks mailing list