Photo: makamuki0, CC0 (via Wikimedia Commons)
Sarsaparilla
Smilax ornata
Also known as Jamaican Sarsaparilla, Honduran Sarsaparilla, Zarzaparrilla
Key benefits
✦Traditional uses
✦Long before it flavored a soda fountain favorite, sarsaparilla root was a trusted tonic among healers in Central America and the Caribbean, who turned to it as a general cleansing remedy and a support for skin complaints. The root's mucilage and saponin-rich character earned it a reputation as a blood purifier in nineteenth century Europe and North America, where it was steeped into tonics meant to be taken slowly, over weeks, as a springtime cleanse. Its warm, faintly sweet, root-beer-like flavor made it just as beloved in the kitchen as in the apothecary cabinet, and dried bundles of the root traveled by ship from tropical ports to herbal dispensaries across the world.
How to grow & use it
✦The full apothecary for Sarsaparilla
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- ✦Remedies & preparations
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“For an old-world tonic root, meant to be simmered slow and sipped with patience.”
Sarsaparilla root was the original flavor behind old-fashioned sarsaparilla sodas, the frontier-era cousin of root beer that saloons and soda fountains served as a wholesome, temperance-friendly tonic drink.
Sarsaparilla root's saponins can cause stomach upset in large or concentrated doses. Safety data for pregnancy and breastfeeding is lacking, so it is best avoided during those times.