Word Finder - sarsaparilla

definition

Any of various tropical (Central and South) American vines of the genus Smilax, such as Smilax regelii, which have fragrant roots.

definition

The dried roots of these plants, or a flavoring material extracted from these roots.

definition

A beverage (soft drink) flavored with this root, such as root beer.

definition

Any of several North American plants, of the genus Aralia, having umbels and small white flowers.

The collection of sarsaparilla root is a very tedious business; a single root takes an Indian half a day or sometimes even a day and a half to unearth.

These tubers form a considerable article of trade in China, but are used to a limited extent only on the Continent, under the name of China root, although introduced into Europe about the same time as sarsaparilla.

Among the well-known forest products of this zone are arnotto, jalap, ipecacuanha, sarsaparilla, rubber, orchids and a great variety of gums.

The Jamaica sarsaparilla of trade is collected on the Cordilleras of Chiriqui, in Panama, where the plant yielding it grows at an elevation of 4000 to 8000 ft.

Lima sarsaparilla resembles the Jamaica kind, but, the roots are of a paler brown colour.

Guayaquil sarsaparilla is obtained chiefly in the valley of Alausi, on the western side of the equatorial Andes.

The name of Indian sarsaparilla is given to the roots of Hemidesmus indicus, an Asclepiadaceous plant indigenous to India.

These roots are readily distinguished from those of true sarsaparilla by their loose cracked bark and by their odour and taste, recalling those of melilot.

There are valuable vegetable dye-stuffs, medicinal plants (especially sarsaparilla, copaiba and ipecacuanha), cabinet and building timber (mahogany, &c.), india-rubber, tropical fruits (especially bananas), and various palms; fish are economically important - the name Panama is said to have meant in an Indian dialect " rich in fish " - and on the Pacific coast, oysters and pearl " oysters " (Meleagrina californica) - the headquarters of the pearl fishery is the city of San Miguel on the largest of the Pearl Islands, and Coiba Island.

Detox A.M. also features dandelion root, sarsaparilla root, Echinacea and red clover to help boost your body's immune system.

Smilax is a characteristic tropical genus containing about 200 species; the dried roots of some species are the drug sarsaparilla.

The best known of these are sarsaparilla, ipecacuanha, cinchona, jaborandi and copaiba; vanilla, tonka beans and cloves; Brazil-wood and anatto (Bixa orellana); india-rubber and balata.

Of the medicinal plants, the best-known products are ipecacuanha., sarsaparilla, copaiba, jaborandi and cinchona, but this is only a part of the list.

The forest products, whose collection and preparation form regular industries, are rubber (called Gaucho or goma), tonka beans, vanilla, copaiba, chique-chique, sarsaparilla, divi-divi, dye-woods, cabinet-woods and fibres.

In the vast untrodden forests farther east there are timber trees of many kinds, incense trees, a great wealth of rubber trees of the Hevea genus, numerous varieties of beautiful palms, sarsaparilla, vanilla, ipecacuanha and copaiba.

The exports are mahogany, rosewood, cedar, logwood and other cabinet-woods and dye-woods, with cocoanuts, sugar, sarsaparilla, tortoiseshell, deerskins, turtles and fruit, especially bananas.

Blue flag, snake root, ginseng, lobelia, tansy, wormwood, wintergreen, pleurisy root, plantain, burdock, sarsaparilla and horehound are among its medicinal plants.

The natural and forest products of Mexico include the agave and yucca (ixtle) fibres already mentioned; the " ceibon " fibre derived from the silk-cotton tree (Bombax pentandria); rubber and vanilla in addition to the cultivated products; palm oil; castor beans; ginger; chicle, the gum extracted from the " chico-zapote " tree (Achras sapota); logwood and other dye-woods; mahogany, rosewood, ebony, cedar and other valuable woods; " cascalote " or divi-divi; jalap root (Ipomaea); sarsaparilla (Smilax); nuts and fruits.

The vegetable products of Guatemala include coffee, cocoa, sugar-cane, bananas, oranges, vanilla, aloes, agave, ipecacuanha, castor-oil, sarsaparilla, cinchona, tobacco, indigo and the wax-plant (111yrica cerifera).

Forest Products.-The forest and other natural products include rubber, cinchona bark, ivory-nuts, mocora and toquilla fibre for the manufacture of hats, hammocks, &c., cabaya fibre for shoes and cordage, vegetable wool (Bombax ceiba), sarsaparilla, vanilla, cochineal, cabinet woods, fruit, resins, &c. The original source of the Peruvian bark of commerce, the Cinchona calisaya, is completely exhausted, and the " red bark " derived from C. succirubra, is now the principal source of supply from Ecuador.

Sarsaparilla must have come into extensive use soon afterwards, for John Gerard, about the close of the century, states that it was imported into England from Peru in great abundance.

Sarsaparilla still has a popular reputation as an "alterative," but it has been examined and tested in every manner known to modern medical science, and is professionally regarded as "pharmacologically inert and therapeutically useless."

Sarsaparilla is grown to a small extent in Jamaica, and is occasionally exported thence to the London market in small quantities, but its orange colour and starchy bark are so different in appearance from the thin reddish-brown bark of the genuine drug, that it does not meet with a ready sale.

In Honduras sarsaparilla the roots are less wrinkled, and the bark is whiter and more starchy, than in the Jamaica kind.

Guatemala sarsaparilla is very similar to that of Honduras, but has a more decided orange hue, and the bark shows a tendency to split off.

Mexican sarsaparilla has slender, shrivelled roots nearly devoid of rootlets.

The forest products of the state include fine woods, rubber, ipecacuanha, sarsaparilla, jaborandi, vanilla and copaiba.