Background #

The products of the North American tree Sassafras albidum (Nutt.) Nees. have a long history, running from the exploration of the New World by the sixteenth century French, Spanish and English, right up to the present day. As late as 1952 local chemists in England could prepare sassoil as a treatment for headlice.

The name Sassafras did not appear in print until 1571 when the Spanish writer, Monardes, made the knowledge of its apparent medicinal virtues available to Europe. His book was translated into English in 1577 by Frampton as The Joyful Newes out of the New Founde Worlde. The medicinal use of the plant was known long before this in the French colonies and may well have been encountered by earlier Spanish explorers. The travel literature is reviewed for possible references together with the geographical limits of the tree’s natural growth.

Once Raleigh began establishing colonies in Virginia, Sassafras became one of the primary products searched for and on one occasion was used as food by a group of benighted explorers. Unusual morphological characteristics of the tree’s leaves are discussed which, by relating them to the Doctrine of Signatures, suggested that it was a cure for syphilis.

The Spanish had long written about Guaiacum and Lignum Vitae from the West Indies and South America as herbal cures for syphilis, but here was one apparently in English Territory in North America and one Harriot thought was better than the other two.

The root and bark of the plant were known to have effects against other prevalent ailments of the time, namely, scurvy, and ague. By the time Gerard published his English Herbal (1597), the Ague Tree was established as one of the English names, although it does not seem to have grown in Britain until 1620.

The Australian Doryphora sassafras, named for its similar odour, is a member of a different botanical family and should not be confused with Sassafras albidum.

Introduction #

Thomas Harriot is not known as a specialist botanist but his observations and recordings could clearly have made him one. Virginian Sassafras was first introduced into England by the explorers of Raleigh’s expeditions to Virginia. Harriot’s achievement was to advertise in his Brief and True Report of the new found land of Virginia the qualities of Sassafras root and bark. He believed it to be superior to the famed Guaiacum, a West Indian drug introduced into Europe by the Spaniards earlier in the sixteenth century. Harriot’s report probably led to a growth in demand for Sassafras and the consequent high prices it reached in England.

The first recorded attempt to grow the tree in England was in 1620. Once the tree is acclimatised it suckers vigorously, making it unsuitable for small gardens. Unfortunately, the suckers do not transport easily, and Sassafras remains a relatively unknown plant in Britain. There are at least five garden sites where the tree grows in Britain today. The main site in South England is Cannizaro Park in Wimbledon where there is currently [as of 1993] a mature tree, a younger tree and numerous suckers. The tree was labelled in 1992, perhaps as a consequence of the enquiries made during the preparation of this research.

In modern pharmaceutical literature Sassafras bark is described as mildly aromatic and carminative. The oil distilled from the bark has rubefacient properties and, until more effective agents became available, was used to destroy head lice. The oil, because of its toxic properties, is rarely given internally: in 1965 a British Food Standards Report recommended it be prohibited for use in foods as a flavouring agent. In the U.S.A the toxic elements are removed before the oil is sold commercially as a flavouring for root beer, candy and Gumbo Filé powder used in Cajun cooking. A distinguished American academic reports that he regularly chewed Sassafras leaves as a child on summer holidays in the countryside of the Eastern States, where it grows wild in hedgerows and rough ground. It is still possible to buy jars of Sassafras Jelly on farm stalls in Connecticut. I doubt whether they are detoxified, but neither is there any suggestion that they have a medicinal value. To discover the origin of that, it is necessary to go back to a French settlement on the Florida coast in the mid-sixteenth century.

Discovery of the Sassafras #

On the night of 20th September 1565 two very frightened Frenchmen, Jacques le Moynes and Grandchemin, were wading chest-high in water through the reed swamps of the East Coast of Florida. They had lived at Fort Caroline since the previous summer, but now the fort had been almost dismantled in preparation for a return to France. Their departure had been interrupted by the arrival of-the Spanish under Captain Menendez. Most of the able-bodied men had chased the Spaniards down the coast in ships under the command of Ribault. The women and children, the injured, and those with domestic duties remained at the fort. Grandchemin was a tailor and was to finish a set of clothes for the second-in-command Seigneur d’Ottigny; Jacques Le Moynes was the expedition’s cartographer who was recovering from an injury sustained in a battle against the Native Americans. A hurricane had been raging for two days, which wrecked Ribault’s ships and masked the advance overland of the Spanish. Shortly after Le Moyne had stood down from his all-night watch, they launched a ferocious attack, killing most of the people who were unable to make an immediate escape. Le Moyne lived to recount the history of the expedition. Grendchemin did not.

This was not a chance encounter between the two nations. When the French arrived the previous year they had come without adequate provisions. Considerable discontent arose at the fort and resulted in the two ships setting off independently for the West Indies. One of these, Le Petit Breton, returned in March. But the other was captured by the Spanish, who rushed three of the Frenchmen to Spain. It is possible that it was from one of these three that we have the first printed record of the Sassafras.

King Philip of Spain had been watching the French settlements in Florida with great interest. They were far too near the departure area of his treasure ships for comfort and in addition they were Protestant colonies. Admiral Coligny of France had masterminded both the 1562 and the 1564 expeditions but religious and political trouble in France had delayed the departure of Jean Ribault’s relief voyage to the colony. All this was known to the superior intelligence services of the Spanish, who were already planning the attack on the beleaguered colony when the three Frenchman fell into their hands. Menendez then made a hurried departure for Florida with orders from the King of Spain to destroy the colony before Ribault’s reinforcements arrived. We know that at least one of the Frenchmen went with him because Le Moyne refers to him twice by name:

“…the Spaniards, led by a Frenchman, Francois Jean who had betrayed his own comrades, broke into the camp with a rush at three points and met with no resistance.”

and

“…that traitor, Francois Jean (who had led the Spaniards to the fort), …” ¹

Whether it was an unknown survivor of the massacre, Francois Jean himself, or one of the other two captured men who first brought Sassafras to Spain, we cannot be sure. All we learn from the original written account is that:

“From the Florida whiche is the firme Land of our Occidentall Indias, lying in xxv. degrees, thei bryng a woodd and roote of a tree that groweth in those partes, of greate vertues, and great excellencies, that thei heale there with greevous and variable deseases. It maie bee three yeres paste, that I had knowledge of this Tree and a Frenche manne whiche had been in those partes, showed me a peece of it, …”

“… He told me that the Frenchemen, which had been in the Florida at the time, when they came into those partes, thei had been sicke the moste of theim, of greevous and variable deseases, and that the Indians did shewe them this Tree, and the manner how thei should use it, …”

“After that the Frenche menne were destroied, our Spaniardes did beginne to waxe sicke, as the Frenche menne had dooen, and some whiche did remaine of them, did shewe it to our Spaniardes, and how thei had cured themselves with the water of this marveilous Tree…” ²

The man who wrote this was Nicholas Bautista Monardes, born in Seville in 1493, the son of a Genoese bookseller and a Spanish woman. It appears that he always lived in Spain, graduating in medicine in 1533 at Alcala de Henares. This was a school of medicine and botany with a reputation in Europe for its medical research. He then returned to Seville where he became a physician and medical scholar before gaining a Doctor of Medicine of Seville University in 1547. Because all the ships bearing plants from the New World were coming into the port of Seville, he was able to study the plants and talk to those who brought them. Soon he began experimenting with the herbs and incorporating them into his medicine. By 1565 he had begun writing a book describing these experiments. It was first published in Seville in 1569, a second part in 1571 containing the Sassafras entry, and a third added to a 1574 edition. Charles de l’Ecluse [Clusius] had published a Latin edition with illustrations in 1574 [Antwerp]. In 1577 John Frampton published his English translation of the 1574 edition and it was probably this book which Harriot was to take with him to Virginia.

These books had the effect of establishing the name of this unusual North American tree throughout Europe as Sassafras. Monardes explains:

“The name of this Tree as the Indians dooeth name it, is called Pauame, and the Frenche menne doeth call it Sassafras. I knowe not wherefore our Spaniards doeth call it after the same maner, beying taught by the Frenche menne, although that some doeth corrupte it, and calleth it Sassafragia, by the name that we have from thence, and thei of those partes doeth call it Sassafras.” ³

This is a curious statement because the Frenchmen who returned to France and wrote accounts of their experience did not call it either of those names. When Jean Ribault wrote about his 1562 exploratory expedition to raise money for a plantation, he referred to “Bayes” i.e. Laurels, and also to “…rootes like unto Riubabe which they have in great estimation, and make thereof a potion of medicine.” This could well be a description of the colour and taste of a Sassafras concoction, as Rhubarb was not native to America. While Ribault languished in prison in England as a result of the debacle of the abortive Stewkley expedition, his former second-in-command, Laudonniere, settled the colony that Monardes was referring to. Within a month of their arrival in Florida a soldier was writing home:

“We have found a wood of Esquine most useful for dieting, although this is the least of its virtues; the sap which comes of it has such virtues that if a thin man or woman drinks it regularly for some time he will become very stout and fleshy. It has other good qualities.” ⁴

He goes on to say that there are plans to gather the wood for export to France where it sells well. That suggests that either Ribault or those who abandoned Charlesfort in 1563 had taken a significant quantity back to France with them.

Le Moyne presumably lost most of his written material in his desperate attempt to escape the Spanish. Although he had something to show the French King on his return, he did not write up what we know of his printed work today until about fifteen years later and does not name Esquine but Cassine (about which more later). Laudonniere did write an account published in Paris in 1586, and used the same name as the soldier:

“There is also the tree called Esquine, which is very good against the Poxes and other contagious diseases.” ⁵

Descriptions of the Sassafras #

Without a detailed description of the morphology of a plant it is difficult for isolated individuals to recognize and name a specimen. The unusually long Monardes account [it is 23 pages in the Frampton translation] provided as much information as he could gather from those returning from Spanish Florida.

“…and these soldiours doeth trust so muche in this woodde, that I beyng one daie emongest many of them, informing my self of the thynges of this Tree, the moste parte of them tooke out of their pokettes, a good peece of this woodde, and said: Maister, doe you see here the woodde, that every one of us doth bryng for to heale us with all, if we do fall sicke, as we have been there … and now we come to shewe the description and forme of this Tree.” ⁶

Although Monardes himself probably saw only the wood and roots of the tree, there follows a description of the size, colour, shape and smell of Sassafras. To aid identification he makes useful comparisons with familiar European trees, pine, palm and ash. In his depiction of the leaves, however, he misses one very unusual characteristic. He writes:

“…the higher part that doeth contain the bowes hath leaves, the whiche bee greene, after the manner of the Figge Tree, with three poinctes, and when thei are little, thei be like to the leaves of a Peare Tree, in onely the shewyng their pointes, thei bee of coullour a sadde Greene, and of a sweete smell, and muche more when thei bee drie.” ⁷

All the above is true but there is a third much more rare form of the leaf, the mitten-shaped, which distinguishes it from most other trees except some of the mulberry family. The White Mulberry [Morus alba L.] in particular has leaves very similar in shape to the Sassafras but their margins are serrated instead of entire. Although a native of China, it was introduced into Europe and would have been familiar to the Spanish as the Silkworm Mulberry. ⁸ It is this similarity which might have indicated an earlier written record than Monardes'.

Most of the plants and artefacts described by Monardes are from South and Central America where the Spanish had concentrated their exploration. There had, however, been several expeditions into Florida. It is therefore possible that some of these ventures might have come across and described the Sassafras without naming it. This could justify the statement in the Oxford English Dictionary that “…it is said to have been discovered by the Spaniards in 1528.” [1989] The editors of the dictionary are unfortunately unable to give any explanation for this entry as it dates back to the 1909 edition for which they no longer have notes.

Spanish Expeditions #

The most likely Spanish expedition to have found Sassafras in 1528 was that of Narvaez, begun in Florida in April of that year. Purchas records the events of that expedition and a translation of an account by the treasurer of the expedition and one of the few survivors, Cabeza de Vaca. He describes a Native American ritual in the very observant account of his eight years wandering across what are now the Southern States of the USA.

“Likewise they drinke another thing which they take from the leaves of trees, like unto the Mulberry trees, and boile it in certain vessels on the fire, and after they have boiled it, they fill the vessels with water, so keep it over the fire, and when it hath been twice boiled, they pour it out into certain vessels, and cool it with halfe a goord, and when it gathereth much fome, they drink it as hot as they are able to suffer it…” ⁹

He goes on to relate the details of the ritual. The important phrase in this extract is “…the leaves of trees, like unto the Mulberry trees…”. Is this really Sassafras? As the Purchas translation is incomplete three later American translations were checked. ¹⁰

1. Buckingham-Smith’s 1851 translation of the 1555 edition of Cabeza de Vaca reads:

“They drink a tea made from leaves of a tree like those of oak, which they toast in a pot…”

2. Bandelier’s 1905 translation of the original 1542 Relacion says:

“They also drink something which they extract from leaves of trees, like unto water-oak, toasting them on a fire in a vessel like a low necked bottle.”

3. Covey in 1961 reads:

“They drink a yellow tea made from a holly-like shrub [Ilex cassine] which they parch in a pot.”

Oak, water-oak and holly-like shrub with an additional Ilex cassine which is a plant native to the Americas and may be the actual leaves used, as described by Le Moyne, ¹¹ but where was the Mulberry? Purchas was translating a 1556 Italian version by Ramusio. He names the tree ‘Elci’ ¹². This is close to the modern Italian ‘Leccio’ or Holm-oak, a Mediterranean tree similar to the species of Ilex of the Southern States. This identification is confirmed by the original Spanish account, where Cabeza de Vaca uses the word ’enzina’ or ’encina’, which is again Ilex or Holm-oak ¹³. Here we have gone round a Mulberry bush entirely of Purchas’ making. There was no identifiable Sassafras, the local trees were probably Ilex vomitoria or Ilex cassine. That Sassafras grows in this region has been shown in the recently published Flora of Louisiana ¹⁴. It may well have appeared in the early accounts under the general term, Laurel. For a while it was classified as Laurus Sassafras L. because of its appearance.

French Expeditions #

Whilst the Spanish had long concentrated on the South, the French had begun exploring the North and East. They had long been aware of laurels on this coast. Writing to the French King about his expedition Verrazzano says:

“And do not think, Your Majesty, that these forests are like the Hyrcanian Forest or the wild wastelands of Scythia and the northern countries, full of common trees; they are adorned and clothed with palms, laurel, cypress, and other varieties of trees unknown in our Europe. And these trees emit a sweet fragrance over a large area [We smelled the fragrance a hundred leagues away and even further when they were burning the cedars and the winds were blowing from the land] … We think they belong to the Orient by virtue of the surroundings, and they are not without some kind of narcotic or aromatic liquor… [We baptised this land “Selva di Lauri” (Forest of Laurels)…” ¹⁵

The presence of palms suggests that he got at least as far as South-East North Carolina which is the northern limit of the cabbage palm. The aromatic coastal plants would almost certainly have included Sassafras as reported by Monardes’ witnesses:

“…it is a Tree that groweth nere unto the Sea, and in temperate places, that hath not muche drouthe, nor moisture, there be Mountaines growing full of theim, and thei dooe caste a moste sweete smell: and so at the beginning when thei saw them, thei thought that thei had been Trees of Sinamon, and in parte thei were not deceived, for that the rinde of this Tree hath a sweet smell, as the Sinamon hath, and it dooeth imitate it in coulour and sharpenesse of taste, and pleasaunte smell…” ¹⁶

The French accounts of exploration of the North-East were vivid, describing the flora and fauna in some detail, particularly when it was good to eat. Cartier made his second attempt to find a north-west passage to Cathay in 1535. By October his party had not progressed far enough up what is now the St Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, to determine whether he had succeeded. He therefore decided to spend the winter on that coast. The Native Americans brought them food when their supplies failed, but by December even they were suffering from rotting gums and legs blotched with purple blood. These are the symptoms of the vitamin deficiency disease, scurvy. The French soon began to suffer in large numbers and some died before Cartier met one of the Native Americans who had been ill ten or twelve days previously and was now recovered. The cure was attributed to the leaves and juice of a tree and two squaws were sent to help the French grind up the leaves and bark for boiling into a concoction. The men that drank it were cured, some claiming that they were also cured of syphilis.

The Native American name given for this tree is variously Ameda, Annedda and Hameda. Purchas in a margin note writes “…of a tree called Hameda, which was thought to be Sassafras” ¹⁷. This is unlikely as Cartier was north of this deciduous tree’s range. More recent writers have suggested it was spruce or white pine or the conifer Hemlock. Botanical authors consider that it was Thuja occidentalis L. that was used. This is the Eastern White Cedar also called arbor vitae in 1558. Cedar oil for medicines is distilled from the twigs today. It was one of the first North American trees to be introduced into Europe where it was growing in Paris in about 1536. Cartier could well have brought it back.

When the French attempted a permanent settlement under Gua de Mont in 1604,

“…the unknown sicknesses like to those described unto us by James Quartier, in his Relation, assailed us. For remedies there were none to be found… As for the tree called Annedda, mentioned by the said Quartier, the Savages of these lands knowe it not.” ¹⁸

There follows a passage on the philosophy of healthy living which includes the practical observation that none on the “High Table of Poutrincourt died only common sort.” He had made the connection between good food and scurvy but continues:

“And for the last soveraigne remedie, I send back the Patent to the tree of life [for one may well qualifie it] which James Quartior doth call Anneda, yet unknowne in the coast of Port Royall, unless it bee, peradventure the Sassafras, whereof there is a quantitie in certain places. And it is an assured thing that the said tree is very excellent.” ¹⁹

These comments on the distribution of the plants are interesting because Port Royal is nowhere near where Cartier found his tree, but more significantly Thuja occidentalis L. apparently does not grow in Nova Scotia today. More puzzling is that Sassafras is not shown growing in Nova Scotia today either. South-West Maine is its northern limit. From Monardes we learn of its southern limit:

“The tree groweth in some partes of Florida, and doeth not grow in others, for that it is in the port of Sainct Elen, and in the porte of Sainte Mathewe, and it is not in any other partes, but when the Soldiours did waxe sicke, in places where this Tree was not, either thei carried them to bee healed to the saied places, or they did sende theim the Trees, or the rootes chiefly, and there with did heal them.” ²⁰

This fits well with the southern limit of the tree. It is in the two areas that had been occupied by the French, Fort Caroline and Port Royal that the Spaniards had renamed Sainct Elen and Sainte Mathewe but it is not in their original landing place in the South of Florida.

Early English Expeditions #

While the French had attempted a settlement and the Spanish had founded a town, St. Augustine, Florida, the English had financed many voyages of exploration to find a north-west passage to the Spice Islands of the East. Jack Hawkins had personal knowledge of the French settlement at Fort Caroline where he had stayed for several days providing supplies and a ship to the colony before Ribault’s relief ships arrived. But it was not until 1574 that Humphrey Gilbert petitioned the crown to “build another English Nation across the seas.” He was granted a charter for six years from 1578 but had not succeeded by the time he was lost at sea in 1583. His half-brother, Walter Raleigh, then received the patent for six more years and fund-raising began. Captain Carlile’s April 1583 Discourse to the Merchants of the Muscovie Company raising money for an American Plantation lists a fairly standard set of commodities to attract their investment: “Salmon, Codde, Whales, Pitch, Tarre, Hempe and thereof cordage, Masts, Losshe hides, rich Furres…” He is more cautious about the minerals but still hopes to find the passage to the “East India Sea.” ²¹

The following year a quick surveying trip was made at Raleigh’s expense by the Captains Amadas and Barlowe. They came back with a different list of produce, many items of which they must have been primed to search for, probably by Hakluyt. He had already published Divers Voyages in 1582 and was working on Principal Navigations, both of which contain considerable information about the East Coast. More significant is a manuscript he circulated before the expedition returned in order to raise money for a permanent colony. This was A Particular Discourse concerning Westerne Planting²². It contains a summary of the products recorded by the French and Spanish explorers but picks out a single commodity in the writings of “Doctor Monardus that excellent phisition of Civill.” There follows a long quotation about the virtues of Sassafras from the Frampton translation. It is the only plant referred to from the whole book, probably because it is the only one Monardes distinguishes as growing on the mainland of North America.

On their return in September, Barlowe wrote up his accoµnt showing that from the very first landing he was looking out for Sassafras. Although the writing has a ring of Verrazzano about it, the observations are original.

“the woodes are not such as you finde in Bohemia, Moscovaia, or Hercynia, [ed, region south of Caspian Sea] barren and fruitles, but the highest and reddest Cedars or the world, farre bettering the Cedras of the Azores, or of the Indies, or Lybanus, Pynes, Cypres, Sassafras, the Lentisk, or the tree that beareth the Masticke, the tree that beareth the rine of blacke Sinamon, of which Master Winter brought from the streights of Magellan, and many other excellent smell and qualitie.”

Many of his other observations are practical but not always precise. For example, it is not clear from the following quotation whether the Sassafras is used as a beverage or for medicinal purposes.

“…their drinke is commonly water, but while the grape lasteth they drinke wine, and for want of caskes to keepe it, all the yere after they drink water, but it is sodden with Ginger in it, and black Sinamon, and sometimes Sassafras, and divers other wholesome, and medicinable hearbes and trees.” ²³

A different use for Sassafras was planned by the other Richard Hakluyt, the lawyer, in his 1585 pamphlet Inducements to the liking of the voyage intended towards Virginia.

“Sawed boords of Sassafras and cedar, to be turned into small boxes for ladies and gentlewomen, would become a present trade.” ²⁴

This may well have been inspired by the use of sandlewood in India for that purpose.

Everything was now ready for a permanent plantation. Money had been raised, the Queen Elizabeth had given her approval by allowing the land to be called Virginia. She did not, however, allow Raleigh to accompany his seven ships which numbered amongst their passengers Thomas Harriot and John White.

Ralph Lane had been chosen to organise the plantation in Virginia, presumably because of his, experience of settlements in Ireland, from where he had been recalled. He was expected to establish the colony and continue exploration of the land. This was done in the directions dictated by river access. They travelled eighty miles south to Secotan; one hundred and thirty miles north to Chesepitinas, where they found “great woods of Sassafras and Wall nut trees.” ²⁵

The following March in 1586, they travelled a further one hundred and thirty miles from Roanoke to the North-West and then finally westwards which took them, according to Quinn, as far as modern Hamilton on the Roanoke River. It was on this excursion that they deliberately resorted to Sassafras as food in order to extend their exploration in the hope of finding the mine “….which hath a marveilous and most strange Minerall.” ²⁶

The journey was thwarted by the Native Americans passing word up the river that the English were coming to kill them. The Native Americans therefore abandoned the riverside towns, moved their food stores inland and refused to trade. One hundred and sixty miles from Roanoke, with little food left, the whole party was given a vote as to whether they would go on and use up these supplies or turn for home.

“Their resolution fully and wholy was … that whiles there was but one halfe pinte of Corne for a man, wee should not leave the search of that River, and that there were in the companie two Mastives, upon the pottage of which with Sassafras leaves (if the worst fell out) the company would make shift to live two dayes, which time would bring them downe the current to the mouth of the River…” ²⁷

They continued up the river two more days till their corn was used up and very briefly hoped that they had reached more friendly Native American country. However, an attempt to go ashore was greeted with arrows and they accepted that they could not get fresh food. The next morning they turned for home “for they were now come to their Dogges porredge…” They reached the river mouth the following night where:

“…we lodged upon an Iland, where we had nothing in the world to eate but pottage of Sassafras leaves, the like whereof for a meate was never used before as I thinke.” ²⁸

The colony did not thrive and no relief ships arrived from England. So when, in June, Sir Francis Drake arrived from having sacked San Domingo, Cartagena and the Spanish Florida settlement of Ste. Augustine, and offered the colonists a ship in which to return to England, they accepted. But like the abandonment of the French colony twenty years before, East Coast American weather took its toll. The first ship was swept out to sea in the storm and when they finally boarded the small boats to carry them out to the ships:

“…the weather was so boisterous, and the pinnesses, so often on ground, that of all we had, with all our Cards, Books and writings were by the Sailers cast overboord…” ²⁹

And so Harriot and White lost most of their records of the expedition.

The cure all #

The return of the failed colony was not good publicity for the investors, but Harriot’s Brief and True Report must have gone some way to counteract that. He reveals some faults of the attempted Plantation but then turns to the positive aspects of Virginia. Amongst the merchantable commodities he lists:

“Sassafras, called by the inhabitants Winauk, a kind of wood most pleasant and sweet smell, and of most rare vertues in physicke for the cure of many diseases. It is found by experience to be far better and of more uses than the wood which is called Guaiacum, or Lignum vitae. For the description, the manner of using, and the manifold vertues thereof, I refer you to the booke of Monardes, translated and entitled in English, The Joyfull newes from the West Indies.” ³⁰

Their reference to Guaiacum or Lignum Vitae is very significant because this wood had long been written about in Spain as a cure for Syphilis. Monardes’ chapter on Guaiacum had the added interest of explaining the spread of the disease through army camps when infected sailors who had travelled with Columbus dispersed after their return from discovering the New World. Whatever current research in archaeology is revealing about the disease being present before this is irrelevant for this paper as it is what the people of the time believed to be true that is important.

One of the medical philosophies widely subscribed to was the doctrine of signatures which had two articles. The first was that the means of curing a disease occurred in nature in the same areas as the disease. So it fitted well that there was an abundant supply of Sassafras in regions where the colonists appear to have contracted the syphilis from the Native Americans within the year.

The second article of the doctrine was that there were signs on the plant itself which indicated what part of the body it would cure. Here again Sassafras appeared to fulfil the requirements. One form of the unusual leaves had the general shape of the male reproductive organs.

According to Monardes, different illnesses required different types of prescription: “Cholericke”, “Flegmaticke”, “Sanguine”, the “Leane and Strong”, and the “Colde and Hotte”. The two principal effects of Sassafras were considered to be comforting the liver and the stomach. It was generally served with water, sometimes sugar (not too white), sometimes wine, and sometimes honey. Chewing of the roots was recommended for toothache. “Stones of the Kidneys and Raines” were best treated by a heated concoction of the water. “Griefes of the Stomacke” when the cause was “colde or windie” required a strong brew served early in the morning.

The list of ailments that Monardes claimed Sassafras could cure was extensive: “dropsie”, “tertiary and quotidian agues”, fevers, “dissolving of opilations”, “griefes and paines in the head”, bad breath, preventing vomiting, curing the “Burnying of the Urine”, toothache, “poxe”, bronchial “griefes of the breast caused of cold humours” and “restore the apetite lost”. On top of all this “some women dooeth use this Water, for to make them with childe.”

Monardes was fulsome in his praise for this miraculous drug:

“Blessed be our Lorde God that delivered us from so great evill, and gave us this most excellente Tree called Sassafras, which hath so greate vertues, and dooeth suche marveilous effects as we have spoken of.”

The toxicity of Sassafras is indicated by Monardes’ description of a case of overdose in a woman that believed the more she took the sooner she would heal, and Grieve in Modern Herbal, states that an overdose causes “stricture across the bow, severe pain in the head, coma and death.”

In his The Herball or General Historie of Plantes, of 1597, Gerard states:

“The Spaniards and French men have named this tree, Sassafras, the Indians in their toong Pauame, for want of an English name we are contented to call it the Ague tree, of his virtue in healing the Ague.”

He also notes:

“The best of all the tree is the roote, and that worketh the best effect, … [the trees] cast foorth a most sweete smell, so that at the beginning when they saw them first, they thought they had beene trees of Cinamon, and in part they were not deceived: for that the rinde of this tree hath as sweete a smell as Cinamon hath, and doth imitate it in colour and sharpness of taste… " ³¹

Price #

The Sassafras tree was recognised by those on the expedition as “a tree of high price and profit”. Gosnold, under the patronage of the Earl of Southampton, set out specifically to gather Sassafras. Arriving in the New World in early May, he landed on an island which was named Elizabeth’s Island after the Queen where a variety of fruits, groundnuts and many types of timber were found. Sassafras trees were also found: “great plenty all the island over”, and the Native Americans were used to help in gathering this:

“… yet six or seven of them remained with us behind, bearing us company every day into the woods, and helped us to cut and carry Sassafras, and some of them lay aboard our ship.” ³²

When the “bark had taken in so much sassafras, cedar, furs, skins and other commodities as were thought convenient” the ship returned to England. Even in Elizabethan times, though, the well known economic relationship between excess supply of commodities and low prices held. Gosnold brought back so much Sassafras from this voyage that the price dropped to 3 shillings per pound which is well below the previous price of 20 shillings a pound ³³. Sir Walter Raleigh was very annoyed at this fall in price as the voyage had been made without his permission and he sought compensation. The Earl of Southampton had to smooth over the resulting difficulties with Gosnold.

In consequence, those going on future expeditions including Pring (1603) and Waymouth (1605) sought the permission of Raleigh before setting out as Raleigh had the patents of those parts of America from Queen Elizabeth I.

Patents were granted by his Majestie for the plantation of Virginia, 10th April 1606. The demand for the plant products produced a rapid rise in price and when the new charters to explore Virginia and New England came into force, the adventurers were looking for Sassafras as well as timber, minerals etc. Once the colonies of Virginia were established and the farming of tobacco was progressing, a dispute arose with the English company suggesting that some colonists were not paying enough attention to their farming but continuing to cull Sassafras for their income.

Eventually the Sassafras lost its cure-all reputation and became a tonic to “purify the blood”. Now, most people in Britain have not even heard of it, although it still forms the basis of concoctions in the USA.

Appendix: description and use of Sassafras #

(From Morton, 1974, Folk Remedies of the Low Countries)

Description #

Tree or Shrub to 40ft.

Root	Taproot and spreading root system producing suckers.
Twigs	Intially smooth and green; later red-brown.
Trunk	Light-brown chequered bark which later becomes deeply furrowed and grey, flaking off and exposing reddish-brown inner bark.
Leaves	Deciduous, alternate, elliptic, up to 6 inch long and 4 inch wide often with 1-2 thumb-like lobes, or one side lobe near the tip. Bright green above, downy beneath. New leaves: very downy and reddish. Mature leaves: yellow, orange or red in fall.
Flowers	Fragrant and without petals. 6 petal-like, greenish-yellow sepals. In downy axillary or terminal clusters. Male and female on separate trees.
Fruit	Dark-blue oval 3/8 inch long in red receptacle at of 1 inch or 2 inch scarlet stalk.
Seed	Single.
Season	Flower in March-April. Fruit in June-July.
Habitat	Open woods, roadside fields favouring clay or dry, sandy soil.
Range	Maine and Ontario south to North Florida and west to Oaklahoma, Texas, Mexico and South Carolina.

Historical Uses #

Roots	Small roots dug up before spring, cleared, broken into pieces and used fresh or dried and hung in a sack. These pieces were boiled to make tea. The roots were chewed with some preferring young "white" roots, while others prefered the red root (mature bark was chopped off with a knife).
Pith	The pith of a split branch was boiled to make a tea. This was applied to baby’s eyes.
Leaves	Young leaves were cooked with wild okra (Viola palmata var triloba Ging.) and dog's tongue (V. septemloba house) to make soup.
Root bark	This is greyish brown externally, and reddish-brown internally, brittle when dry and spicily fragrant. It tastes strong, pungent, aromatic and sweetish. It is composed of: volatile oil, camphorous matter, fatty matter, resin, wax, tannick like principle called Sassafroid, tannic acid, gum, albumen, starch, red pigment, lignin, and salts. The effect of this is as a stimulant, diaphoretic and diuretic. This was often added to remedies for syphilis, rheumatism, scrofula, and skin diseases. The peeled root is less active than the bark. Dr Porcher used an infusion of the Sassafras root "whenever a warm, aromatic, mucilaginous tea was required in pneumonia, bronchitis, catarrh, mumps etc."
Essential oil	This was distilled from the root, root bark, twigs and chopped stumps. It was used for difficulties during mensturation of following delivery, and kidney and bladder trouble. Used externally as a rubefacient on swellings, sprains, bruises and rheumatism.
Mucilage (from the pith of the branch tips)	This was taken as a demulcent for chest and bowel, and used for kidney and bladder complaints.
Flowers	A decoction of the flowers was used as a blood purifier.

Other historical uses:

Tea	Drunk as a tonic in spring. Pioneers boiled the root in maple syrup to make a drink.
Chewing	Roots and leaves chewed.
Drink	2-3 leaves dissolved in water yield mucilaginous drink.
Soup thickening	Twigs and leaves (de-veined) dried and powered for flavouring and thickening soups forming mucilage like okra.
Drink Flavour	Bark extract used by food industry as a flavouring for soft drinks, ice cream, candy and baked goods.
Dental	Toothpaste, mouthwash.

Toxicity #

For safe consumption, it must be safrole free. Safrole (p. allylmethylendioxybenzene) has produced liver tumours in rats. Dihydrosafrole has produced oesophageal cancer in rats.

References #

Additional Sources #

Carlile, Captain, Discourse to the merchants of the Muscovie Company raising money for an American Plantation, 1583, in R. Hakluyt, The principle navigations, ed. W. Raleigh, 12 vols, Glasgow, 1903-5 (vol. VIII, pp.134-47).

Ribault, John, The true and last discoverie of Florida, made by Captain John Ribault in the year 1562. In R. Hakluyt, Divers Voyages, 1582, reprinted by the Hakluyt Society (ed. John Winter Jones) 1850.