Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) is a deciduous tree native to eastern North America, recognisable by its mitten-shaped leaves and distinctive spicy-sweet aroma. The root bark was historically the primary flavouring agent in root beer and was widely used in traditional medicine by Indigenous peoples and European colonists.
The dried, ground leaves of the sassafras tree — known as filé powder — remain an important ingredient in Cajun and Creole cooking, used as a thickener and flavouring in gumbo and other dishes. However, the root bark fell out of mainstream commercial use after safrole, the compound responsible for its characteristic flavour, was banned as a food additive in the United States in 1960 due to concerns about carcinogenicity in animal studies.
Modern root beer is flavoured with artificial sassafras flavouring or safrole-free sassafras extract. The tree itself is common in the wild across eastern North America but is not commercially cultivated at scale.
How it's produced
Sassafras is wild-harvested rather than farmed. Root bark is obtained by digging up roots or root sections from wild trees and stripping the bark, which is then dried. Leaves for filé powder are harvested from wild or occasionally cultivated trees, dried, and ground to a fine powder.
Commercial quantities are relatively small, reflecting the ingredient’s niche status. Most sassafras products come from small-scale harvesters in the southeastern United States. Safrole-free extracts used in modern food manufacturing are produced by processing raw sassafras extract to remove the regulated compound.
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