296 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



A Kentuckian at my side ordered tea. The waiter 

 asked 'What kind of tea?' 'Store tea,' he answered. 

 'I kin git plenty of sassafrac (colloquial L.) at home!' " 



It is not customary for sassafras drinkers to keep the 

 root-bark separated from the root, the recently dug 

 roots being shaved as the bark was used. Kentuckians 

 claim that there are two varieties of sassafras, the red 

 and the white, distinguished only by the bark. The 

 white sassafras is not so aromatic and is bitter to the 

 taste. In Kentucky, the red bark only is used. 



In addition to the wood,, root and bark, mucilage of 

 the pith is employed in domestic medicine, for bathing 

 inflamed eyes. A comprehensive description of the 

 domestic -uses of sassafras in Rafinesque's Medical Flora, 

 1830, is reproduced as a fitting ending to this record of 

 sassafras: 



"Found from Canada to Mexico and Brazil. Roots, 

 bark, leaves, flowers, fragrant and spicy. Flavor and smell 

 peculiar, similar to fennel, sweetish sub-acrid, residing 

 in a volatile oil heavier than water. The sassafrine, a 

 peculiar mucus unalterable by alcohol, found chiefly in 

 the twigs and pith, thickens water, very mild and lubri- 

 cating, very useful in ophthalmia, dysentery, gravel, 

 catarrh, etc. Wood yellow, hard, durable, soon loses 

 the smell, the roots chiefly exported for use as stimulant, 

 antispasmodic, sudorific, and depurative; the oil now 

 often substituted ; both useful in rheumatism, cutaneous 

 diseases, secondary syphilis, typhus fevers, etc. Once 

 used in dropsy. The Indians use a strong decoction to 

 purge and clean the body in the spring; we use instead 

 the tea of the blossoms for a vernal purification of the 

 blood. The powder of the leaves used to make glutinous 

 gombos. Leaves and buds used to flavor some beers and 



