Talk:Sassafras

Source
Information about sassafras oil and uses of sassafras

http://www.erowid.org/archive/rhodium/chemistry/3base/safrole.plants/fafopo/sassafras_oil.html

Taxo
Sassafras randaiense(Hayata)Rehder is better classified as Yushunia randaiensis (Hayata)Kamikoti, because has flowers with bilocellate anthers, while all others Sassafras species have tetralocellate anthers, beyond others minor diferences.Berton 00:09, 7 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Interesting, though the Draft Flora of China retains it in Sassafras - do you have references for the above points? MPF 01:12, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

In the work cited:"cells of 1st whorl 3, the upper cell infertile, or 2 all fertile, but those of 2nd and 3rd whorl 2", is the same criterion used to separate Genus such as Phoebe from Apollonias, Sinosassafras from Parasassafras, Williamodendron from Mezilaurus, etc. In this case was used to separate (in the key) the two species, but also Sassafras albidum has tetralocellate anthers. Other important diference is "those of 3rd whorl each with a pair of sessile glands at the base" in Sassafras randaiense, and this no occur with Sassafras tzumu. If this is not yet sufficient, see: Kamikoti, Sizuka (1933). Ann. Rep. Taihoku Bot. Gard. 3, pp.78, paper where the new Genus Yushunia is publicated. Berton 00:09, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

From Nie, Z.-L., Wen, J. & Sun, H. (2007). Phylogeny and biogeography of Sassafras (Lauraceae) disjunct between eastern Asia and eastern North America. Plant Systematics and Evolution 267:191-203: "The differences among the three Sassafras species also led some botanists to assign them to separate genera. Sassafras tzumu was considered as belonging to Pseudosassafras, to distinguish it from the North American species (Lecomte 1912). Because of the 4- (vs. 2-) sporangiate separation anthers in S. randaiense, this species from Taiwan was proposed to be the sole member of the genus Yushunia (Kamikoti 1933). Previous phylogenetic analyses of Lauraceae (e.g. Chanderbali et al. 2001) did not sample Sassafras randaiense from Taiwan. The primary difference between S. randaiense and S. tzumu is the locular number in their anthers, a character that used to be considered important for the Lauraceae taxonomy (Rehder 1920) and has been discussed repeatedly by many authors (e.g. Rohwer et al. 1991, van der Werff 2001)." Berton 22:27, 27 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Very useful, thanks! - MPF 09:10, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

Insect repellant
It says the oil is an insect repellant but is the growing plant also an insect repellant (and therefore "nice" to have in the yard)? Nurg 05:44, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Root beer, usage in
I don't think they put sassfras in root beer anymore, since, as the article states, safrole is a carcinogen. Edit-- on further research, it seems that sassafras is available without safrole. 67.110.214.131 01:21, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Not really, after all, imitation sassafras is no longer sassafras....

69.69.213.157 (talk) 18:43, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

The article implies that damage to humans from drinking safrole has been studied/observed. I do not believe that is the case, nor are the animal studies extensive enough to establish the danger of safrole oil in the concentrations found in Sassafras tea or Sassafras flavored root beer to humans. Why are no references to these studies given? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Paulsnx2 (talk • contribs) 17:00, 29 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I suspect that it is just a matter of whether anyone has gotten around to citing them and writing up something. The main caveat I'd mention is the neutral point of view and the difficulties of drawing conclusions from animal studies (related largely to dosage, the short time periods in animal studies, etc).  The article Safrole might be a better place for this material. Kingdon (talk) 15:10, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Trader Joe's has a root beer with sassafras, & not imitation either.

Why does the Sassafras have three different types of leaves?
Just wondering...does anyone know? Thanks.

Because it just grows that way. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.25.20.38 (talk) 22:44, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

Redundant?
This page seems to have some of the same content as Sassafras albidum, but with fewer details. Perhaps this can be used more as an index? I was initially confused when reading this, as this seems to have information, but not much. XXV 16:50, 10 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Concur: recommend merging this information with Sassafras albidum and deleting this entry. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Landarski (talk • contribs) 14:53, 4 May 2010 (UTC)


 * I do not think this article should be deleted. There are references to the page on other parts of wikipedia which relate to the culinary use of Sassafras (pretty sure it's references to the genus... not of any one particular species of the genus). Deleting this entry would mess up those references, as having them pointed to a specific species of Sassafras would not be correct.


 * Also, deleting this entry deletes the page for a whole genus of plants which I think have many notable references. Maybe you can give me a little time to think about how we can clean up this page so it's not just a duplicate of some other page's information? (Too busy with work at the moment.) Any other folks have ideas? Fallendarling (talk) 19:54, 9 August 2010 (UTC)


 * There really isn't any chance of this article being deleted, both for the reasons you noted and because it is general policy to have both genus and species level articles for any living taxa which are not monotypic, thus having more then one species. Yes this means that there will be information duplication to some degree, but there with be info that is relevant to the genus that is not to the species. -- Kev  min  § 20:58, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

Number of species in genus?
The first sentence of the article says there are four species in the genus sassafras, but the "Species" section lists only three. Which is wrong or incomplete? --Jim Henry (talk) 15:16, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Deleted nonsense text
I have removed nonsense text - "dfghdfghf fghdh" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.91.9.114 (talk) 04:40, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

can you tell me the best results for multiply rhe tree .. branche cuttings or seeds —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.90.197.112 (talk) 05:59, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

WikiProject Food and drink Tagging
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Pop Culture Section
How is mentioning the mentioning of Sassafras in Lyrics a useful addition to the article? If it is, please do also include Aerosmith' "Love in an elevator", Green Day's "Sassafras Roots" and Bubble Puppy's "Hot Smoke and Sassafras", as well as the Sassafras Song performed in Zoey 101. -91.0.126.172 (talk) 10:45, 21 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I agree with the removal of this section. See "In popular culture" articles for much more discussion of the subject in general, but I don't see how a list of songs which mention sassafras enhances this article. Kingdon (talk) 04:00, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Wrong Height "Sassafras trees grow from 15–35 m (50–120 feet)"
I have been around Sassafras trees for 20 years they do not generally grow to 120 feet 60-80 would be more accurate for someone researching Sassafras trees, do a little research and fix it?

Sassafras at pollenlibrary.com Azcen (talk) 21:30, 22 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, says "to 35 m".  I wonder if that is just an error, as the champion S. albidum in Kentucky seems to be only 76 feet tall: . Alternately, perhaps one of the two Asian species is larger? Kingdon (talk) 19:33, 23 January 2009 (UTC)


 * For what it is worth, the questionable data was added here: . Kingdon (talk) 19:37, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Anticoagulant
The Culinary Uses section contains the line "Sassafras tea can also be used as an anticoagulant", on its own without any context. It's not clear whether this is a historical observation based on an Old Wives' Tale, or whether it actually is an effective anticoagulant, and in the latter case it would be interesting to find a good solid reference for this. Otherwise it would be better written as "Sassafras has historically been used as an anticoagulant"; I would change this myself, but I imagine it's a controversial subject. -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 17:07, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

The ban of Sassafras from root beer
I heard that sassafras was banned as an ingredient under the pretext that it was "carcinogenic" because safrole was being used to induce abortions which were legal at the time of the ban (1960's)but in reality although only anecdotal evidence, a can of beer is as cancer causing as a can of sassafras containing root beer. I just don't know where I could cite the history from. - User:Apclass123 09/25/10


 * Unfortunately without any reliable supporting references this isn't information that can be added to the article. If you can find ref's that support this then post them and we will see where they can be integrated.-- Kev  min  § 17:19, 25 September 2010 (UTC)


 * I read a similar story in a book on artificial sweeteners which was in my tiny high school library... 207.241.137.116 (talk) 04:30, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Deleted Silly Text
Deleted silly text at the beginning about how sassafras "is a huge an an a huge monstrosity". This has nothing to do with the plant. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.53.59.22 (talk) 18:16, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

Sassafras randaiense
I think some of the information in this article is too specific. Sassafras randaiense (Taiwanese Sassafras) is hemaphroditic and protogynous as described in this paper: http://ceeb.econbot.org/2008029.pdf Also if you look at these images: http://www.arkive.org/sassafras/sassafras-randaiense/image-G102201.html you can see that Sassafras randaiense doesn't seem to have trilobate or bilobate leaves. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ittiz (talk • contribs) 00:55, 3 May 2012 (UTC)

Deleted OR sources and External link
Deleted as sources two unpublished papers associated with the Lost Colony website. There are RS for this information (use of sassafras against STD and its value as an export in the early 17th c.). A lengthy footnoted paper on the potential role of sassafras in the settlement of the Lost Colony misused material published in a Virginia-Pilot article, suggesting that it supported a view that a skeleton found in Jamestown, VA in 2002 may have been Gosnold's. (The article clearly says that English researchers concluded it did not match one believed to have been his sister's.) Also deleted an external link to an elementary school project on sassafras.--Parkwells (talk) 16:46, 9 October 2012 (UTC)

Deleted contradictory sentence about sassafras as a food source
Deleted, "The fruits are an important food source for birds." No citation is provided, and this contradicts information properly cited in the next section, that Sassafras is not consumed in enough quantity to be an important food source. PurserSmith (talk) 22:09, 4 April 2015 (UTC)

Safrole oil?
This is confusingly structured and oddly phrased. I've literally never heard it described as "safrole oil" in any text. The actual Safrole page's first paragraph states: "It is a colorless or slightly yellow oily liquid typically extracted from the root-bark or the fruit of sassafras plants in the form of sassafras oil." The essential oils page also calls it "Sassafras oil" but the word Sassafras links to this article, and the word "oil" links to Safrole. Something seems odd about that, too, but shouldn't this page deal with the essential oil itself and link to the chemical Safrole rather than equate them? They Terk Err Jerbs (talk) 07:35, 14 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I've changed the name of that section and changed the "Sassafras oil" page to to the section. Also cleaned it up a bit.  Let me know if there are issues with this.  Moving the Sassafras oil related detailed information to that page would make for a very short article, and the trend thus far on Wikipedia seems to be that essential oils end up receiving similar treatment elsewhere more often than not and are on their plant page...   They Terk Err Jerbs (talk) 09:03, 19 May 2016 (UTC)

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Really a carcinogen?
Many food additives (particularly some food colorings) are carcinogenic either in very tiny or very large quantities. Why was sassafras tea banned in the USA? Has it truly been shown to be more carcinogenic than food coloring or other commonly ingested chemicals? Are sassafras shrubs banned from being sold by nurseries? When I was young, sassafras tea was freely available and tasted delicious. David Spector (talk) 19:00, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

replaced by artificial flavors ?
Article states "It is the main ingredient in traditional root beer and sassafras root tea..."

but states "...in 1960, everything changed. The sassafras root, a key ingredient in root beer, was ironically banned by the U.S. Food And Drug Administration because it was found to be a carcinogen. " Setenzatsu (talk) 12:32, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
 * There's no contradiction in this. Note that your first quote says "traditional" which does not mean that is what is currently used.— al-Shimoni  (talk) 17:41, 8 September 2021 (UTC)

Deleted inaccurate info on leaf drop
Deleted unsourced text stating that leaves drop when then plant can't absorb water because it is frozen in temperate zones. Leaf drop happens around the same time as other deciduous trees, usually after early changers like birch and sycamores but before late changers like oaks, all of which often happens before temps drop below freezing even at night. Treeguypgh (talk) 21:31, 21 November 2022 (UTC)