[Sca-cooks] Okra vs filet

[drakey at internode.on.net]

  BODY { font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px; }A 
lot of countries have restrictions on the use and production of 
Sassafras root because of the amount of safrole it contains (File is 
the ground leaf and contains relatively little)...  The main 
flavouring in root beer these days isn't sassafras root, but a variety 
of various herbal extractions (varying on brand to brand) along with 
wintergreen... 
 Safrole causes cancer in rats and it's a precursor chemical for Meth 
production... 
 Cheers, 
 Drakey... 
 ps. Stefan - that kumiss article is on the back-burner... I'll get to 
it one of these years :P 
 On Tue 04/05/10  3:44 PM , Stefan li Rous StefanliRous at austin.rr.com 
sent: 
 Talana commented:  
 >  
 I believe that that is correct. I had a good link or article 
submitted to the Florilegium on this, but since it was both New World 
and post-period, I didn't end up using it.  
 I could probably dig it up if anyone asked, but there is probably 
lots of other info online about making root beer out of sassafrass.