Sassafras, is the wood, bark and root of the Sassafras tree, or us Sassafras, L. a native of America, the culture and properties of which we have already described, vol. i. p. 200. It is imported in long straight pieces, which are of a very light and porous texture; emitting a fragrant odour ; and hav-ing an aromatic sub-acrid, though tish, taste. The strongest parts are the bark and small twigs; which, as well as the roots, are subject, on importation, to the duty of 2s. 6 1/2d. per cwt.
Sassafras is a warm, aperient, and strengthening medicine; it has often been successfully given in the forms of infusion and decoction, for improving the tone of the stomach and bowels, in persons whose humours were in a vitiated state. -HoFfman has frequently prescribed a scruple of the extract of sassafras, with great benefit, in hypochondriacal spasms, and also at the decline of intermittent fevers. - Infusions of this drug are sold in the streets of the metropolis, under the name of Saloop.