How to Identify Sassafras in the Winter

[@eugemoney8972]

This was so educational. Thank you

[@margiewestover743]

Thank you so much!

[@Guy-ky9mc]

I've been looking for this stuff the past few weeks in eastern NC. Seems impossible to locate right now, idk. It's driving me nuts I can't find it. I know it's out here because I remember someone brewing up sassafras tea around a campfire when we were kids.

[@georgegates526]

Holy cow! Are they big!

[@USAlien234]

Isnt the oil poisonous ? How do you get the poison out to make safe root beer ? Im just going off what I heard. I think thats why its illegal to uae it in food production...at least I thought. Thank you for the video thou. Very informative. ✌ 😊 ✝ ❤

[@EatThePlanet]

The component safrole has been deemed carcinogenic based on one flawed rodent study in the 60s. It's consumed by foragers and herbalists frequently. There are no claims of short term toxicity when eaten in its natural form. The essential oil may be acutely toxic in large quantities. The difference is that essential oil is extracted in such a way that its concentrated in levels that would never be found naturally. Any type of essential oil should be treated cautiously even from certain edible plants. When making tea or eating leaves you'll never see concentration level anywhere near that of essential oil. You can get a little more information here(particularly in the 'Known Hazards' portion) pfaf.org/user/plant.aspx?LatinName=Sassafras+albidum

[@EatThePlanet]

Interestingly the components in the plant can be used to make the drugs MDA and MDMA(ecstacy). There are conspiracy theories that the pharmaceutical companies didn't want MDMA used to treat psychological issues which some psychiatrists were doing. So as the theory goes they created this flawed rodent study to get safrole banned from commerce in the US in certain forms.

[@seedsofsatya436]

@@EatThePlanet Totally, they did this with so many other natural medicines. Turpentine Pine Gum Spirits is another they created so much fear around, and created a Manufactured Turpentine that is poisonous. People are catching on though. YAY!

[@EatThePlanet]

@@seedsofsatya436 Thanks for the info. I'm curious what you mean by turpentine pine gum. Are you just referring to the gum from pine trees and that they say the terpenes in the pine are more toxic than they actually are?

[@seedsofsatya436]

@@EatThePlanet Pine Gum Spirits was a very widely used medicinal for our ancestors, but there was a lot of fear placed around it's usage through research and creation of manufactured Turpentine, which is dangerous. This curbed the usage and became a lost forgotten medicine, but has been making a come back healing and helping so many with parasites, Lyme, Candida, etc. It's a powerful medicine.

[@ryanblaze932]

Can you find that in the smokies?

[@EatThePlanet]

according to this map you should be able to find them there upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/Sassafras_albidum_range_map.jpg/220px-Sassafras_albidum_range_map.jpg . I'm in CT and they are pretty common here. I don't know how common they are in the smokies, but its basically smack dab in the center of their range so I would expect them to be common.

[@seedsofsatya436]

@@EatThePlanet yes, all over the place in the smokies, Birch too. :)