Thursday, November 29, 2018

The Lost Colony - What could Sassafras from the Americas Do for 16C & 17C Mankind ?

From 1569 Fronispiece of Historia medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias Occidentales ("Medical study of the products imported from our West Indian possessions") is the standard title for the survey by Nicolás Monardes (1493–1588).

Sassafras is a small tree, Sassafras albidum, belonging to the laurel family native to eastern North America. Sassafras grows in woodlands in rich sandy well-drained soil from Maine to Florida, reaching a height of about 75 ft (25 m). All parts of the sassafras tree are aromatic with a pleasant odor & a slightly sweet but astringent taste. The root & root bark were formerly used medicinally. The root is thick & woody. When alive, it is whitish but rapidly turns cinnamon-brown on exposure to air. Other names for sassafras are ague tree, cinnamon wood, saxifrax, saxafrax, & saloop. The first Europeans learned the uses of sassafras from the Native Americans, who as a group rank among the most astute botanical observers of all time. In the North American Appalachian mountains, the Cherokees utilized sassafras tea to purify blood & for a variety of ailments, including skin diseases, rheumatism, & ague. A poultice was made to cleanse wounds & sores, while the root bark was steeped for diarrhea or for “over-fatness” (certainly one of the first weight reduction remedies to hit the market).  Native Americans used this plant for a number of medicinal purposes. It was used to treat colds, flus, stomachaches, measles, rheumatism, insomnia, & arthritis. It was also thought to be important for preventing illnesses by cleaning the blood, bowels, & kidneys. Sassafras roots can still be boiled to make a tea, & can be ingested in moderation. The use of root beer made from sassafras roots dates back to the colonial times.

Monardes claimed he learned of sassafras from “a Frenche manne whiche had been in those partes [Florida].”  The Frenchman told Monardes that his countrymen in Florida “had been sicke…of greevous & variable deseases, & that the Indians did shewe them this Tree, & the maner how thei should use it, & so thei did, & thei healed of many evilles.”  The French in this case may have been  part of the failed settlement at Ft. Caroline, indicated by Monardes saying “the Frenche menne were destroied.” Monardes described sassafras as a panacea for many illnesses & praised God for its existence: “Blessed be our Lord GOD that deliuered vs from so great euill, & gaue vs this most excellente tree called Sassafras, which hath so great vertues, & worketh such mauellous effects as we haue spoken of, & more which Time wil shewe vs, which is the discouerer of all thinges.”  It was a general belief during the early modern period that “God often placed remedies for a disease in the areas where that disease flourished,” & since syphilis was of American origin, its cure surely was to be found in America.

 Mondardes claimed that hearing reports out of Florida of the beneficial uses of the tree gave him the “courage to experimente it.”  He used it on “a gentlewoman” suffering from “certaine indispositions of the Mother, & of greate colde,” & “was burdened in suche sorte with a verye greate Agewe.”  After following Monardes’ instructions on how & when to take sassafras water, the woman was “healed very well, of her disease.”  Monardes also healed “a yonng man which had an Opilation of certaine Tertians.  And thereof he was all swolne, & in such sort that he was well nere full of Dropsie” by treating him with “water of this sassafras” in conjunction with “Pilles of Ruibarbe, & by takying of Dialaca.”   Monardes healed a gentleman with “with foule deseased hands…which could not write…paste five or six letters,” upon drinking sassafras water ."  Reminiscent of plague doctors, Monardes used sassafras as a pomander because the sweet smell of the roots was “so acceptable it did rectifie the infected ayre.”  He carried it when treating patients, & in addition to the sassafras, Monardes believed he “was delivered by the healpe of God from the fyre, in the whiche we that were Phisitions went in.”

Monardes also heard anecdotes & eyewitness reports of the miraculous plant.  Spanish soldiers under the command of Pedro Menedez (the same Menedez who destroyed Ft. Caroline) drank sassafras water to ward off disease; a priest accompanying the soldiers cured his kidney stones by drinking sassafras water; a captain in Florida who was unable to walk & had to be carried by his soldiers was cured by sassafras; & a physician in Havana used sassafras to cure his patients of constipation.  In addition to the previously mentioned diseases (pregnancy pains [indispositions of the mother], fever & malaria [ague] edema [dropsy], blockages [opilations], arthritis [foul deseased hands], kidney stones, lameness, constipation), Monardes claimed sassafras could cure dysentery (staie the flux), headaches (griefes of the head), stomachaches (griefes of the Stomacke), bad breath (stinking breath), toothaches, gout, comfort the liver, engender clean blood, restore appetite (cause lust to meate), help digestion, consume winds, cause urination, cure bareness in men & women, cause weight gain, & reduce childbirth pains (evill of the Mother).  Monardes claimed that sassafras had “the same effectes that the reste of the water of the holie woodd, the China, & the Sarcaparillia dooeth.”  Monardes is referring to the four sudorific woods: sassafras, guaiacum, china root, & sarsparilla, all of which were found in America.

Monardes’ description of sassafras laid the foundation for future authors to understand the physical & medicinal properties of the sassafras & its leaves, roots, wood, & bark. A side by side comparison of John Frampton’s translation of Monardes’s Joyfull Newes, & the Thomas Johnson’s edition of John Gerard’s The herball or Generall historie of plantes (originally published by Gerard in 1597, edited Johnson edition published in 1633) demonstrates how Monardes’ work served as the cornerstone of knowledge for the English knowledge of sassafras for at least 2 generations.

The sweet & powerful smell of sassafras as described by Monardes’ Joyfull Newes & echoed by Gerard also appeared in the writings of Thomas Harriot.  Harriot, while visiting southern Virginia in the 1585, encountered & described sassafras as “a kind of wood of most pleasant & sweet smell, and of most rare virtues in physic for the cure of many diseases.”  Harriot advised his readers if they wanted to know about “the description, the manner of using, & the manifold vertues thereof,” they should read “the Booke of Monardus, translated & entituled in English, The joyfull newes from the West Indies.”  In 1631, Robert Fludd claimed that sassafras could be “scented by nauigators vpon” the shores of Guaiana & Virgina “sometimes before they can discerne any land.” In 1633, James Hart claimed the scent of sassafras wood in the West Indies could “be many miles carried into the aire, & by sailers smelt a farre off.”

Sassafras became the first major forest product shipped to the old world, where it was initially considered to be a wonder drug. Indeed, at the height of the “sassafras craze,” early colonists were burdened with a governmental requirement that each man produce 100 pounds of the sassafras per year or be penalized ten pounds of tobacco.

Once the source of a curative oil, tonic, & tea, sassafras was avidly sought by some 16C American explorers who hoped to make a fortune by exporting the root bark for medicinal uses.  Sassafras soon lost its popularity in Europe as a cure-all, but early American colonists, as well as native Americans, continued to use various parts of the tree to treat arthritis, colds, & diarrhea.  Sassafras extracts were added to soaps & perfumes, & the aromatic wood, thought to repel bed-bugs, was made into bedsteads.  Sassafras was also used to concoct a root beer-like drink.  According to Rebecca Rupp’s Red Oaks & Black Birches: The Science & Lore of Trees, sassafras tea was thought to cure scurvy, syphilis & other unpleasant maladies. It was served in London coffeehouses with milk & sugar. It was believed that ships with sassafras hulls were reputedly safe from shipwreck; chicken houses with sassafras roosting poles were reputedly free of lice; human bedsteads built from it were reputedly bedbug-less; & so on. Eventually, of course, the bottom fell out of the sassafras market as Europeans & Americans moved on to other faddish & trendy panaceas.