Sassafras
Names: Laurus sassafras.
English: Sassafras, Saxafras, ague tree.
Family: Lauraceae.
Source: Donald Peattie in A Natural History of Trees, NA Medicine.
Folklore: Its role in American folklore and early exploration is unique. About it have clung fantastic hopes and promises of gain, and superstitions. Yet no other American tree was ever exalted by such imaginary virtues, its odour was reputed to drive away bedbugs; Negro cabin floors in Louisiana were often laid in Sassafras for the same reason. In West Virginia it is believed that Sassafras hen-roosts keep out chicken lice. But it has been the bark on the roots of the tree, yielding an oil once prized beyond all reason, that gave the Sassafras its fame. An old belief in Sassafras as a tonic that would prolong life. As a demulcent and emollient, oil of Sassafras has never completely ceased to be of some importance in the manufacture of soaps and perfumes; it disguises the bad taste of some medicines and may perhaps still be employed in the flavoring of candy.
Chemistry
Safrole oil, which is carcinogenic.
Homeopathy
Diaphoretic, catarrh, antispasmodic, antiseptic, scurvy, dropsy.
Fevers, tertian and quotidian agues, chronic.
Eyes: pain, inflammation.
Stomach, weak and feeble; vomiting.
Abdomen: flatulence, dysentery, constipation.
Female: infertility, abortion, venereal disease, syphilis.
Menses: painful, absent.
Kidney pain, inflammation of the bladder.
Urine: scanty, gravel.
Rheumatism.