Sassafras root bark, Sassafras albidum, comes from an aromatic tree native to eastern North America, where it grows in old fields, woodland edges, fence rows and thickets.

For generations, Indigenous communities and Appalachian families prepared traditional sassafras tea from the roots and twigs. Today, U.S. regulations prohibit the use of naturally occurring safrole from sassafras root bark as a food additive. Because of this, our sassafras root bark is offered as a traditional botanical for educational, historical. Gifts of potpourri could be made with the bark.

The whole tree carries a warm, spicy fragrance. Long before European settlement, Indigenous communities used different parts of sassafras in daily life. Chippewa records preserve a tea-like drink made from the root bark, Choctaw cooks pounded dried leaves into soup, and Cherokee people used sassafras to scent soap. Timucua knowledge of the tree, called pauame, later became part of the early international trade in North American herbs.

My Grannie grew up in rural Appalachian. She always had hot sassafras tea on the stove for us growing up. Households in the South simmered sassafras roots and tender twigs into “sass tea,” especially as a traditional spring tonic. An entire use on sassafras tea is preserved in Foxfire 4.

Modern herbalist Rosemary Gladstar has written about sassafras as part of the old sensory tradition of beverage herbs, while Matthew Wood describes it as a warming “fire” herb. Sassafras root bark naturally contains safrole, however, and current U.S. regulations prohibit sassafras bark or oil when used to add safrole to tea or other foods.         4 oz. – $32.50

Resources

USDA Forest Service. Sassafras—Silvics of North America. -Native American Ethnobotany Database. Chippewa, Choctaw and Cherokee records for Sassafras albidum. Griffin, Christopher. “Disentangling Commodity Histories: Pauame and Sassafras in the Early Modern Global World.” Journal of Global History, 2020.  – Foxfire Fund. Foxfire 4: Fiddle Making, Springhouses, Horse Trading, Sassafras Tea, Berry Buckets and Gardening. – Rosemary Gladstar. “The Art of Making a Great Cup of Tea.” -Matthew Wood Institute of Herbalism. “The Doctrine of Signatures.” -Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. 21 CFR § 189.180—Safrole.