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Sassafras a hallucinogen? Really?

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69ron

69ron

Esteemed member
I've read many years ago that sassafras could be hallucinogenic in large doses. I used to drink quite a bit of sassafras tea a while back. I tastes sort of like root beer and was in fact one of the main flavorings used in making root beer before the FDA banned it.

Has anyone ever experienced any effects at all from sassafras? It contains safrole. Safrole is carcinogenic in rats because of how they metabolize it. It's carcinogenicity in humans has yet to be proven, and since humans don't metabolize it the same way rats do, there are many who doubt that it causes cancer in humans.

Safrole is a precursor to MDMA and safrole itself is claimed to have hallucinogenic effects at high doses, but none of the claims come from sources I trust.

When I drank sassafras tea, sometimes many cups of it in a row, I never noticed anything at all from it. I love the taste of it. I stopped drinking it after hearing that safrole was carcinogenic, but since then I've not seen any evidence that its carcinogenic in anything other than rats. When I looked at the data over the years, it's clear that rats metabolism safrole into carcinogenic products, but humans apparently don't. To this day, no evidence exists to show its actually carcinogenic in humans. Nevertheless, the FDA has banned it for human consumption, and also banned sassafras (unless the safrole is removed).

So, besides the health risk, or the lack of a real one, I'm wondering does anyone drink sassafras tea and experience any psychoactive effects from it ever?

Can sassafras be used to potentiate other psychoactives? I've read that sassafras will greatly potentiate LSD. Is this true?
 
Safrole is a precursor to MDMA and safrole itself is claimed to have hallucinogenic effects at high doses, but none of the claims come from sources I trust./quote]

Can sassafras be used to potentiate other psychoactives? I've read that sassafras will greatly potentiate LSD. Is this true/quote]

im not sure how sasafrass is manipulated to yeild MDA/MDMA, but i can say that the stuff that comes around called "sass" is a yellow/tan powder that dissolves on the tongue and is very sour. almost like MDMA. the effects are stimulating, euophoric, but lacking the empathy and 'drenched in love' feelings that MDMA deliver. some say that 'sass' is MDA, but for me this is unconfirmed. if LSD/MDMA is a candy flip that seems to work very well for lots of folks, then LSD-sass might provide something similar.

As far as sassafrass tea, seems like it could be useful for a lsd trip. might smooth out some edges and add to the experience.
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heh, if you google "sassafras hallucinogen," this thread is the fourth link.

Erowid has only two entries on sassafras tea, and they are by no means detailed with specific amounts or procedures. Both seemed to get euphoric effects from the drink, and one guy felt like dancing. He said that the experience was very communicative and euphoric, and he felt that it was very similar to mdma.

My conclusion: more experiments need to be done. The experiments should include extracting the Safrole if possible, so that the mass of the substance can be documented along with the report.

Very interesting thread though. Thanks 69ron! I had no idea sassafras was banned for consumption or that it had any possible hallucinogenic properties.
 
What got me thinking about sassafras again was SWIM's recent overdose on calamus. When I was doing research on calamus, the subjects of sassafras and nutmeg kept popping up because they all contain MDMA precursors.

Many people know nutmeg is hallucinogenic. There are enough reports on Erowid that show it is. But it’s generally unpleasant.

Most reports say calamus is not hallucinogenic. But I’ve read many times that activity of calamus varies a lot by location and freshness. There are a few reports that seem to be real which claim calamus has hallucinogenic activity, but all of the reports I saw used fresh wild North American root exclusively. So maybe with calamus, in order to get decent hallucinogenic effects, a specific wild strain must be used. It’s very possible. It does contain compounds similar to nutmeg, and nutmeg is a proven hallucinogen.

Sassafras contains safrole, which chemically is p-allyl-methylenedioxybenzene, which comprises up to 85% of the oil. The volatile oil also contains anethole, pinene apiole, camphor (3.25%), methyleugenol (1.10%) and myristicin. Myristicin is said to be the main active hallucinogen in nutmeg, but sassafras doesn’t contain much myristicin. It’s action should come from safrole. Safrole is also found in calamus and nutmeg (seed oil, 0.2-0.6% safrole). It’s also found in high amounts in Cinnamomum burmannii (leaf/twig oil, 97-99% safrole) and Cinnamomum camphora (root bark oil, 50-80% safrole), and
many others in the Cinnamomum family.

Safrole is insoluble in water, very soluble in ethanol, chloroform and diethyl ether. It’s volatile with steam so it can be easily steam distilled.

Safrole has a melting point of 11.2 °C and boils at 231.5 °C.

A lot of that information was gathered from Erowid here: Safrole FAQ

I can’t find many reliable sources saying that safrole is itself hallucinogenic, most sources doubt that it is.

Sometimes a compound that is itself inactive as a hallucinogen, can become an active hallucinogen when combined with other compounds, or act as a booster.

I’ve seen a few reports of calamus being used as a booster of LSA. Calamus has appeared in “legal high” tablets containing morning glories and Hawaiian baby woodrose, so this is likely to work as a booster. Maybe sassafras also works in this way. I saw reports of it being used to potentiate LSD. If calamus can potentiate LSA, and it contains very similar compounds, then it stands to reason that sassafras could also have this effect.

Has anyone tried mixing calamus with sassafras? Would they potentiate each other? The problem with calamus is that it causes nausea, unless you get a very specific strain (according to others) of it. Most calamus causes serious nausea if a decent psychoactive dose is used. Perhaps mixing calamus with sassafras would boost the psychoactivity of calamus, allowing less to be used to reach good effects without the nausea? Has any tried this?
 
One thing I should mention is that because safrole is insoluble in water, making tea from it should not be very effective if safrole is indeed the main active compound in sassafras. When I drank sassafras tea a while back, I never felt anything from it, maybe that’s why? An alcohol extract should be very effective though. Safrole is very soluble in alcohol.
 
I think that if it works, it must be OR because of other compounds than safrole, like myristicyn or the combination of some of these compounds of wich safrole could be one then.
If safrole would be psycho-active in large amounts you would expect safran to be psycho-active as well.

I don't think you could find any source that would confirm safran's psycho-activity.
 
69ron said:
Safrole is a precursor to MDMA and safrole itself is claimed to have hallucinogenic effects at high doses, but none of the claims come from sources I trust.
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Anything containing safrole is very closely watched due to its use, as you said, to make MDMA. Therefore I would be real careful about getting this - you don't want to be accused of manufacturing MDMA!

elphologist
 
Elphologist1, buying sassafras is not an issue. The amount needed to make MDMA from it for the purpose of selling it would require way too much sassafras. Most bulk herb stores don’t even carry enough in stock for it to be of any use for making MDMA. You’d need to buy many pounds of it for it to be of any real use. Buying a few ounces at the local herb store is not at all suspect. Buying safrole or sassafras oil is a whole different ballgame though.

The FDA isn’t going to investigate anyone buying a few ounces of sassafras. If they did, the local herb stores would not carry it.


Polytrip, I’m definitely skeptical about safrole being active. I’ve seen several overdose reports of sassafras oil and psychoactive effects from it were never mentioned in the reports. Also, I haven’t seen any really credible reports of sassafras being psychoactive. If there are such reports, I haven’t found them. Most of the sources that claim it is hallucinogenic at high doses don’t give a trip report, or a reference for the statement. It looks almost like marketing hype put out there to sell sassafras to would be trippers. But then again, maybe I’m wrong.

If anyone out there can confirm that sassafras is actually psychoactive that would be great.

Also, if anyone can confirm that sassafras can potentiate the effects of LSD or other psychoactives, I would love to hear about that as well.
 
Just noticed the topic...This SWIM has made a nice sassafras teas on several occasions collected from a well developed tree growing at a relatives place. Consumed without any other psychoactives, a mild head change was noticed along with subtle body euphoria. It is how SWIM would immagine consuming an extremely low dose of MDMA alone, although stimulation was not really experienced at all. SWIM never wanted to drink too much at once as he had heard about the potential carcinogenic effects of safrole as well.

SWIM cannot comment on sassafras's potentiation of traditional psychedelics however, a few cups of this tea were once consumed during an MDMA experience. Not only was the taste exceptionally wonderful at the time, it seemed to mellow the whole trip in a sense, while lightening the comedown as well.

sassafras definitely has the potential to create mild psychoactive effects in it's own right. SWIM likes the idea of greater experimentation with sassafras though. It's quite an interesting tree of the midwest.
 
I don't think safrole is the desired active in sassafras. I believe it's similar to the unknown active compound found in calamus root.

Safrole just makes you sedated and sick and is carcinogenic. It's not something you want to ingest. You can remove the safrole by washing the sassafras in acetone.

With calamus root, the psychedelic effects are STRONGER after the safrole is removed. Maybe the same will be true for sassafras?

I want to study this plant a little more, especially after finding out that safrole seems to reduce the effects of psychedelics. The safrol in sassafras could be preventing the psychedelic compounds in sassafras from being felt. That is, if there are any.

The water based extraction tech SWIM performed on calamus that removed from safrole with acetone might also work well with sassafras. SWIM will do some tests and give some reports on it in the near future.
 
69ron said:
Safrole is very soluble in alcohol.
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so, whatdy'a think ron: If one were to extract - one could avoid lengthy steam distillation by doing a MHRB style extraction on the slurry with alcohol?
 
If safrole can be pulled with acetone, is there not also the possibiltiy that any other actives would be removed as well? Knowing that acetone would preferentially pull the safrole while leaving other components would motivate SWIM to do a little experimentation.

Would alcohol or acetone be a better solvent to remove safrole with a better chance of leaving other potential actives?

Also am I correct in assuming that the highest concentration of alkaloids are found in the root/root bark as opposed to the above ground parts such as twigs and leaves?
 
From the research i have seen, the root bark has more potential. I have personally wondered about this for some time as well.

-G7
 
Maybe SWIM has been too much into making tinctures lately. But SWIM has found that sublingual administration can limit the negative effects of several drugs including DMT, LSA and Syrian rue brew. It is also very useful for those that are not water soluble.

Sassafras tincture. Just a though.
 
Tinctures are great for a lot of things.

For extracting asarole to remove it, acetone works wonders. It's more selective than alcohol. It's more likely for alcohol to extract all the actives, and for acetone to extract only certain ones. Acetone is very selective, but a really good solvent for pulling what's soluble in it.

I think it would be better to use d-limonene or xylene to wash off the asarone, or even naphtha, if the goal is to rid the root of asarone, but keep the other goodies.

Asarone should be very soluble in naphtha I believe. It's very non-polar.

Asarone is NOT psychedelic, nor is beta-asarone. Both of these are sedatives and plants high in them are sometimes used in India to counteract the effects of psychedelics, especially the effects of marijuana. Plus beta-asarone is a proven carcinogen in rats, but serious doubts exist as to its carcinogenicity in man. Either way, it’s not desirable. It’s a sedative, and large doses just make you sick, so it’s definitely something you want removed from it. The claims of it being hallucinogenic I believe are not true. Overdose reports of asarone in hospitals mention no cases of visual effect or hallucinations. Its clearly a sedative.

Without knowing the desired active principal of sassafras, it’s hard to say what will happen when you wash it with acetone. This proved to be a good toxin removing step for calamus root, and actually increased the potency of the root (by removing the sedative asarone, I believe).
 
I've been experimenting with sassafras tea here lately on rumor large doses/strong enough brew could be mildly euphoric (as described in your post). So far, for me, sassafras tea alone has not yielded overly positive results. Great tasting, indeed, but nothing I would describe as hallucinogenic.

I have, though, concocted a mixture of 2 parts sassafras, 2 parts yerba mate, 1 part yohimbe which is incredibly stimulating and pleasantly euphoric.

--
K
 
Is asarone known to be a component of sassafras as well or was that specifically calamus you were speaking of Ron?

If one were to attempt to pull the safrole from sassafras I assume basification would be unnecessary as it's not really an alkaloid...is that correct? and what about the other actives? would they migrate to the solvent without base, given adequate surface area? SWIM is curious about a potential plan of attack of sorts to get the most safrole from the root without depriving it other goods.
 
Yes, sassafras contains safrole, asarone and pinene as "active" compounds. None of them are alkaloids and therefore cannot be psychedelic on their own, and also they cannot be salts, so the freebase concept doesn’t apply. Safole and beta-asarone are considered carcinogens. Both are insoluble in water and can be removed with acetone. Safrole is insoluble in water, glycerol; slightly soluble in propylene glycol; soluble in ethanol, ether, acetone, and chloroform.

There are likely other actives in sassafras that are unknown. I believe safrole is soluble in naphtha just like asarone is and can be pulled with all of the usual non-polar solvents. I think heptane or naphtha would be the most selective non-polar solvents available to the average person. They would not pull water soluble compounds, but ethanol, ether, acetone, and chloroform will pull some water soluble compounds.
 
Doesn't it contain myristicyn as well? I know from experience that nutmeg is psycho-active, i tried it when i was thirteen.
It's effects wheren't like those of XTC or even MDA, what you would probably expect if you look at it's chemical structure, but marihuana-like.

I found that nutmeg was active when you eat it, but also when you chew it for a long time.
 
Yes, sassafras contains some camphor, eugenol and myristicin as well as safrole, asarone, and pinene. So it’s somewhat similar to calamus and nutmeg. Myristicin is actually rather weak and doesn’t produce the effects of nutmeg, but is active. Actually none of the identified compounds in nutmeg produce the effects of nutmeg, so at this point in time, no one really knows what makes nutmeg as active as it is. It’s been theorized that the combination of compounds in it are responsible for the effects, but that has not been proven. To this day, most of the nutmeg studies are based around the oil, but it’s possible that there are water soluble actives not present in the oil, as in the case of calamus, which do not seem to be known.

None of the compounds present in the oil are alkaloids. From what I’ve read, nutmeg, calamus, and sassafras do give a reaction indicating the presence of alkaloids. With these three, there’s a tendency for people to assume the actives are present in the essential oils because the oils are the most studied, and most well known. This doesn’t mean the actives are in the oil. There are likely many unidentified compounds present that are water soluble. Tests for alkaloids show there are alkaloids, or at least the tests show positive for alkaloid content. The tests could be wrong though.

I think the three of these deserve more study.

I’ll bet if you remove the oils from nutmeg it’s still active, and much less toxic, and that the same probably applies to sassafras. This is SWIM’s experience with calamus where the oils only serve to produce sedation and nausea, and once they are removed, it’s actually more active.
 
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