A small amount of research has confirmed that crude sassafras extract contains saffrole, which causes liver cancer in rodents.
According to the FDA web site, sassafras extract is permitted if prepared thus: "Subpart F--Flavoring Agents and Related Substances Sec. 172.580 Safrole-free extract of sassafras. The food additive safrole-free extract of sassafras may be safely used in accordance with the following prescribed conditions: (a) The additive is the aqueous extract obtained from the root bark of the plant Sassafras albidum (Nuttall) Nees (Fam. Lauraceae). (b) It is obtained by extracting the bark with dilute alcohol, first concentrating the alcoholic solution by vacuum distillation, then diluting the concentrate with water and discarding the oily fraction.( c) The purified aqueous extract is safrole-free. d) It is used as a flavoring in food." Since that's a PITA, every generally available commercial root beer is made with artificial flavors. Natural root beer is available at Whole Foods, and it is superb. Since a few members of my family react unpleasantly to the artificial flavors in commercial root beer, we tried brewing our own once. The various roots were available at my local home brew shop, and we cobbled together a recipe from various web sites. The stuff was vile. We never tried a second time. So, my brewing is limited to =real= beer! Rick --- Mark Roberts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Bob Shell wrote: > > >On May 6, 2007, at 7:44 PM, P. J. Alling wrote: > > > >> Natural root beer is banned by the FDA. It's > primary flavoring is > >> Sassafras, (containing safrole),which is a > carcinogen. I've made if > >> using the original root but you can't buy it > you'll have to collect > >> yourself > > > >Are you sure about that? I thought the part of the > plant claimed to > >be carcinogenic was filé, the dried powdered leaves > used in Cajun > >cookery. I also heard not too long ago that this > had been shown not > >to be carcinogenic after all. > > OK, what we have here is a question regarding root > beer and > carcinogens. If *ever* there were a question for a > pediatric oncologist > this is it! What about it Dr. Womer? :-) > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > http://www.photo.net/photos/RickW __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
