Sassafras plant

Problem 21.36 Safrole is a naturally occurring acetal isolated from sassafras plants. Once used as a common... 

Over the years, people have experimented with each part of the sassafras plant. Oil from the wood and roots has been used in perfumes and soaps as a scenting agent. After being dried and powdered, the leaves and pith have been used as soup thickeners. Extracts were used as flavoring in root beer until the latter part of this century (Anonymous, 1997). 

The Olefinic Substrates The highly iso-regioselective hydroformylation of allyl- or propenylarenes (phenylpropanoids) gives aldehydes with numerous applications in flavors and perfumes. Several 2-aryl-prop-1-enes required as substrates can be extracted from natural sources in a rather pure form (Figure 6.8). For example, eugenol, with its typical spicy, clove like aroma, can be isolated from clove oil, nutmeg, cinnamon, basil, and bay leaf. Safrol (shikimol) is isolated from sassafras plants and has a typical sweet-shop aroma. Estragole (methyl chavicol) is produced from basil oil and chavicol from betel oil. 

Numerousherbai diureticsare available as over-the-counter (OTQ products. Most plants and herbal extracts available as OTCdiureticsare nontoxic. However, most are either ineffective or no more effective than caffeine. The following are selected herbals reported to possess diuretic activity cetery, chicory, sassafras juniper berries St. John s wort, foxglove, horsetail, licorice, dandelion, digital is purpurea, ephedra, hibiscus parsley, and elderberry. 

MDA-like compounds almost always come from the volatile oils found in a small number of plants nutmeg, mace, saffron, calamus, crocus, parsley, dill and sassafras. More than a thousand synthesized compounds fall into this group. Only a few have been tried by humans. 

The oils from nutmeg, dill, parsley seed, calamus, crocus, saffron, vanilla beans, sassafras and other plants contain generous amounts of the precursors to the semi-synthetic MDA-like compounds. Recently dried nutmeg is about 15 percent extractable oil. 

Achillea, Artemisia (Asteraceae), Cinnamomum, Sassafras (Lauraceae), Ocimum, Origanum (Lamiaceae), Sassafras (Lauraceae), Illicium (Magnoliaceae), Musa (Musaceae), Myristica (Myristicaceae), Eugenia, Pimentum, Sygygum (Myrtaceae), Piper (Piperaceae), Vitis (Vitaceae), Rosa (Rosaceae), Camellia (Theaceae) spp. Plant... 

The plants just mentioned, the blackberry, chinquapin, (Casta-nea) and dogwood to be used as astringents, the gentians, pipsissewa, Sabbatia, etc., as bitter tonics, can easily be obtained by our soldiers while in camp, and they will be found to fulfill aU the indications required in most cases of fever, dysentery, diarrhea, catarrhs, etc. In the formation of demulcent drinks, as substitutes for flaxseed and gum-arabic, the roots and leaves of the sassafras, and the leaves of the Bene (Sesamum) will suffice. The Podophyllum (wild jalap [i.e., mayapple]) will supply the purgative therefore, with the possession of opium and calomel, the surgeon in the field can himself obtain almost everything desired, and with comparatively little aid from the Medical Purveyors. Our chief desiderata now are the preparations of potash, viz nitrate chlorate and bicarbonate, and sup. carb. of soda. We may procure soda from our Salsola kali [saltwort]." 9... 

The leaves, stems, and roots of most species in the laurel family are aromatic. The leaves are typically alternate, rather than opposite, to one another on the stem. The leaves are simple in that they consist of a single blade. The California laurel (JJmbellularia californica) and most tropical species in the Lauraceae have persistent leaves, which remain attached to the plant after they are no longer functional. Other species such as sassafras (Sassafras albidum) and spice bush (Lindera benzoin) have seasonally deciduous leaves, which fall off in the autumn, after they become nonfunctional. 

When the staminate and pistillate flowers are borne on different plants of the same species, they are termed Diacious, as the Sassafras and Willow. When staminate, pistillate and hermaphrodite flowers areallborneononeplant,ason the Maple trees, they are polygamous. 

The following companies are mostly mom and pop hippie stores. All of their catalogs are excelent in that they give extremely specific information about the oils they sell. This includes country of origin, plant parts used and, often, the method of extraction. For reasons known only to me, I am going to add the word bee in the comments part if the company sells sassafras oil. Why sassafras oil No particular reason. But it is a good indication of how comprehensive a company s oil selection is. f they sell sassy, then they sell it all. 

The entire plant of the Chinese drug Toko gave 14 per cent of oil, with a sassafras-like odour, specific gravity 1.0788, [a]D +5° 3, saponification value 0. A terpene-like body, eugenol, and safrole were detected. 

A Specific example of an important uncultivated plant which yields a volatile oil of considerable value is the sassafras tree. Sassafras oil was one of the first volatile oils distilled in America. The range of the tree is from Florida, where it was originally discovered, to Virginia and Pennsylvania, and even as far north as New York and the New England States. It is quite abundant in the South-Central States, especially Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas. The production of this oil attained commercial significance early in the last century, and it is distilled extensively at present in Kentucky, Tennessee. Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia also to a less extent in Ohio, Indiana, and New York. 

With the isolation of the first alkaloids in Europe in the early 19th century and a study of their properties, interest soon developed in examining the flora of countries throughout the world for plant bases that might be useful as drugs. The first alkaloid from an Australian plant, the Tasmanian sassafras (Atherosperma moschatum, family Monimiaceae), was isolated in a German laboratory about fifty years later by Zeyer [1] and named atherospermine he described it thus ... 

Zeyer s alkaloid was almost certainly an impure sample of the bisbenzylisoquinoline berbamine (1), the principal alkaloid of the plant, but nearly a century went by before it was reisolated from sassafras and its structure fully elucidated (2. Shortly after Zeyer s study, a second alkaloid, alstonine (2), was obtained in an impure form from another Australian plant, Alstonia constricta (Apocynaceae) [3]. This work was also done in Germany, and a similar period elapsed before the complete structure and stereochemistry of alstonine were established [4,443],... 

Volume 10 of this series presents four timely reviews. Chapter 1 is a monumental survey of "Alkaloids from Australian Flora" by I. R. C. Bick of the University of Tasmania. This chapter provides a fascinating account of the history of alkaloid discovery in Australia beginning with the isolation of the first alkaloid from an Australian plant, the Tasmanian sassafras (Atherosperma moschatum), by Zeyer in 1861. Also included is a comprehensive survey of alkaloid-bearing plants, and a section dealing with detection, estimation, extraction, and work-up procedures for alkaloids. 

Proposed Terrestrial Plant-Based Ecotoxicological Tolerance Values for Munition Constituents Determined Using Ecotoxicological Benchmarks Established in Similar Individual Definitive Toxicity Tests with Sassafras Sandy Loam Soil... 

Triclopyr is absorbed by leaves and roots and is rapidly translocated in the whole plant. Important weeds controlled by triclopyr are pines, sassafras, hemlock, poison oak, maples, ash, blackberries, willows, rose, and many other perennial weed and brush species (Ryder, 1975). 

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