Results 1 to 19 of 19

Thread: A note about sassafras

  1. #1
    Senior Member bulrush's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    West Michigan
    Posts
    1,100

    Default A note about sassafras

    I've heard of people making tea and root beer from sassafras, and I've heard it causes cancer. Here are some sites that say various things:

    http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Pla...Sassafras.html - says HUGE doses cause cancer in rats, not humans.

    http://www.familymedicinenews.org/ar.../2247(FM).html - "Animals given high doses of safrole developed difficulty walking, signs of nervousness and confusion, and difficulty with body temperature regulation. Long-term exposure produced liver tumors, including liver cancer. Because of these health risks, the Food and Drug Administration has banned safrole-containing food additives. Sassafras tea, because of its so-called "natural" status, is still available." (Notice they talk about effects in animals, not humans.)

    http://www.bccancer.bc.ca/PPI/Unconv...ssafrasTea.htm - good link because it has quotes from medical studies, not hearsay.

    http://www.drugs.com/npp/sassafras.html - more info of a medical nature.



    http://www.google.com/search?source=...=Google+Search
    The google search I used.


  2. #2
    Senior Member Aurelius95's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Georgia
    Posts
    939

    Default

    I've also heard that too. However, I think the doses it would take to inflict harm would be much higher than you would ingest in a tea.
    Not all who wander are lost - Tolkien

  3. #3
    Senior Member Ole WV Coot's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Southern WV , raised in Eastern KY up a holler
    Posts
    2,668

    Default

    I don't think it would hurt you. If it did KY & WV wouldn't exist. People I know use it as a spring tonic. Dad is 85 and always drinks it. Hasn't got me yet.....
    Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he's too old
    to fight... he'll just kill you.

  4. #4
    Senior Member bulrush's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    West Michigan
    Posts
    1,100

    Default

    Yep. The first link (not a medical link but...) says rats process the sassafras differently than humans. While rats are used as study animals because they process things in a similar way to humans, it makes sense that there would be occasional differences.

  5. #5
    reclinite automaton canid's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Central California/West Texas
    Posts
    6,622

    Default

    using saffrole to manufacture MDMA in some teenagers' sheds probably causes cancer, but i doubt a little tea or soda is going to be worse than the FDA approved preservatives in most industrially manufactured foods. if in doubs, slice some shiitake or herecium into the brew.
    Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice - Grey's Law.
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    To see what's going on in my knife shop check out CanidArmory on Youtube or on Facebook.

  6. #6
    Senior Member bulrush's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    West Michigan
    Posts
    1,100

    Default

    Why shiitake or herecium? I know shiitake is a mushroom, but what is herecium?

  7. #7
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Central Indiana
    Posts
    58,832

    Default

    Here's my philosophy. If there's a question, I don't touch it. I'd much rather give up sassafras, which I like, and find out later that it actually did not cause cancer than to keep drinking it and find out later is does. The worse that happens now is I give up sassafras. The worse that happens if I don't is I could die. Not much of a trade off in my book.

    I was on a medication a couple of years ago and the FDA mandated a black box warning for it. I immediately went to my doc and said change it. He wasn't all that worried about it. "Are you taking it?" I asked. He said he wasn't. "Then you don't have to worry about dying from it. Change the med."
    Tracks Across the High Plains...Death on the Bombay Line...A Touch of Death and Mayhem...Dead Rock...The Griswald Mine Boys...All On Amazon Books.

  8. #8
    Quality Control Director Ken's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    16,724
    Blog Entries
    2

    Default

    Do you mean sa**afras?
    “Learning is not compulsory. Neither is survival.”
    W. Edwards Deming

    "Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils."
    General John Stark

  9. #9

    Default

    My father has thrown it into the grill a few times for smokiness. It's not bad - not great, but not bad.

  10. #10
    Senior Member Tahyo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Illinois
    Posts
    541

    Default

    The only thing I do with sassafras anymore is grind the leaves into file powder for my gumbos. Other than that it's pretty nasty tasting to me when it comes to tea.
    Last edited by Tahyo; 05-25-2008 at 10:16 PM.
    "The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."

  11. #11

    Default

    Yeah, I think I'll stick to Lipton lol.

  12. #12
    Junior Member Dogpatch Dave's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Otway, OH - "The Little Smokies"
    Posts
    3

    Default

    The last time I drank sassafras tea was, let me think,...Yesterday! At 69 I'm too old to die young, so I think I will keep on keeping on. Of course I am ugly. Did the reports say anything about sassafras making you ugly?
    On a more serious note; two products that would never be allowed on store shelves, if they weren't grandfathered in, are aspirin and cane sugar. I don't think I will give them up either.
    What happens in the woods...stays in the woods!

  13. #13
    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    North Florida
    Posts
    44,846

    Default

    Hey Dogpatch. Welcome to the forum. When you get a chance how about heading over to the introduction section and tell us a bit about yourself.
    Can't Means Won't

    My Youtube Channel

  14. #14
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Central Indiana
    Posts
    58,832

    Default

    Bulrush - None of us have bothered to thank you for a good post. You put together a lot of references on the subject. Thanks!
    Tracks Across the High Plains...Death on the Bombay Line...A Touch of Death and Mayhem...Dead Rock...The Griswald Mine Boys...All On Amazon Books.

  15. #15
    Senior Member bulrush's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    West Michigan
    Posts
    1,100

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Dogpatch Dave View Post
    On a more serious note; two products that would never be allowed on store shelves, if they weren't grandfathered in, are aspirin and cane sugar. I don't think I will give them up either.
    I never heard of this. Though, in rare cases, aspirin can cause Reye's syndrome in kids under age 5, the general concensus is, don't give aspirin to hose under age 5, or is it age 10 now? I remember taking aspirin as a 5 year old, they had baby aspirin.

    As for cane sugar, perfectly safe in low amounts. High amounts can cause obesity, and complications of obesity (diabetes, etc).

    What did you hear about aspirin and cane sugar?

  16. #16

    Default

    Here is a link that will give you the citation and abstract for an article in science magazine that includes a table listing how carcinogenic various things are. *disclaimer* I'm neither a medical doctor nor a biologist so my understanding of the article may be way off. If I read it correctly, 2 grams of dried basil leaves and 12 oz of natural root beer have roughly the same level of carcinogenic affect. 12 oz of beer has quite a bit more.

    http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/conten...i;236/4799/271

    This article is mentioned at the bottom of p. 10 of Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants and Herbs (peterson field guide) by Foster and Duke. Although it is not mentioned in Foster and Duke, there is a * in the table in the science magazine article next to the entry for the ethanol in the can of beer that says it is a nongenotoxic carcinogen. After doing some reading to figure out what the heck that means I still don't know how to assess relative risk or if that is still taken into account by this HERP number given. That seems to be the metric used to rank things in the table but I don't have the background to quite get that either.

    I guess my take on this is that while I'm not going to drink two quarts a day of sassafrass tea, I probably will still make a pitcher about once a year or so as a treat.

    -Dan

  17. #17

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by danmc View Post
    2 grams of dried basil leaves and 12 oz of natural root beer have roughly the same level of carcinogenic affect. 12 oz of beer has quite a bit more.
    First Beowulf is trying to nuke us all, now Dan is trying to take away beer. Enough is enough! Fine, I'll sit next to the guy with the briefcase nuke while drinking a 12 pack. That'll larn 'em!
    "Squirrels are just rats with better PR." -- Anonymous

  18. #18

    Default

    no way, not trying to take away beer. Just trying to put the tea in perspective.

  19. #19
    reclinite automaton canid's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Central California/West Texas
    Posts
    6,622

    Default

    yeah, i'm with bulrush:

    i don't know what the deal with cane sugar is, but as long as it's not excessive consumption, i try to get my sweets from sucrose sources, fructose, honey and stevia in balanced perportions. i'd like to see high fructose corn syrup removed from about 85% of the products it's used in, many of which do not even benefit much from sweetening.

    as for asprin, i'd much rather take it or ibuprophen, when apopriate than acetamenophen, which i do feel should not be allowed over the counter. that stuff is horrible.
    Last edited by canid; 08-13-2008 at 12:52 AM.
    Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice - Grey's Law.
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    To see what's going on in my knife shop check out CanidArmory on Youtube or on Facebook.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •