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Sassafras and Its Lepidopteran Cohorts, or
Bigger and Better Caterpillars through
Chemistry
by Timothy L. McCabe, Ph.D.
Joyfull News of the Newe Founde Worldwas published in
1577, the first European pharmacopoeia to catalog materi-
als from the Americas. In this work by Spanish physician
Nicolás Monardes, we are told of the use of sassafras
root bark for fever, liver discomfort, headache, bronchial
congestion, stomach ailments, kidney stones, gout,
toothache, arthritis, constipation, and infertility. Sassafras
root bark became a principal export to Europe, second
only to tobacco.
Sassafras is a member of the family Lauraceae, which
comprises approximately 40 genera and more than 2,000
species. Besides sassafras, other familiar members
include the cinnamon trees of the Orient, the West Indian
avocado pear, and spicebush. Early accounts of New
World explorers cite enormous populations of the sas-
safras tree along the entire Eastern Seaboard. Our native
sassafras occurs from Maine to Michigan, and south to
Florida and Texas.Sassafras oil possesses a sweet, woody flavor and
was widely employed to flavor toothpaste and soft drinks,
particularly root beer, prior to 1960. It was discovered to be
a carcinogen and banned from products after 1960. A hallu-
cinogenic drug known as Ecstasy is derived from safrole, a
secondary plant substance obtained from the roots of sas-
safras. Today, sassafras tea, produced by steeping the
young roots, remains a fixture in Appalachian folk culture as
a “spring tonic” and “blood thinner.”
There are an estimated 100,000–400,000 different sec-
ondary compounds in plants. Secondary plant substances
are those products not known to have any function in plant
growth or metabolism. They were once thought to represent
waste or by-products of plant metabolism. Current thinking
associates these substances with chemical defenses
against herbivores. Ironically, these same plant chemicals
sometimes provide the herbivore with protection: monarch
caterpillars store cardenolides, vertebrate heart poisons,
obtained from their milkweed host.
Plants can even manufacture insect hormones. The
“paper factor” story is a famous example. K. Slma came
from Czechoslovakia to spend a year in C. M. Williams’s lab-
oratory at Harvard. He brought along his favorite laboratoryexcept in the “enemy-free space” (Tuskes et al., 1996) of
urban environments.
As food for human consumption, giant silk moths hold
an important place in some cultures, and they might in
Western culture were it not for an ubiquitous and intense
aversion to eating insects among Europeans and Euro-
Americans. Native American cultures of the Southwest
included in their regular diet the caterpillars and pupae of
the pinion pine moths (genus Coloradia). Throughout south-
ern Africa, larvae and pupae of the native silk moths are
eaten, fully integrated into local cuisines as appetizers, main
dishes, and ingredients in soups and stews. Caterpillars of
some species, such as the widespread and often abundant
“Mopane worm” (Gonimbrasia belina), are frequently sold at
markets. In China, surplus pupae from silk farms were com-
monly eaten in soups and rice-based dishes.Today, as much silk-moth rearing occurs for enjoyment
as for silk production. Breeders sell and swap cocoons and
eggs, and share rearing tips and experiences. The world’s
silk-moth lovers have become more closely bonded by the
Internet, with Web sites and forums uniting moth buffs from
many nations. “The World’s Largest Saturniidae Site,” main-
tained by Bill Oehlke, a silk-moth fanatic who picked up the
habit from his father, Don Oehlke, can be visited at
http://www.silkmoths.bizland.com/indexos.htm.—James G. (Spider) Barbour,
a field biologist specializing in entomology
and ecology, has 25 years of field experience
in the Hudson Valley, especially in the
Catskills, Hudson Highlands, and
Westchester County. He conducts botanical,
rare species, wetland, plant community, and
insect surveys. He and his wife, Anita, are
the authors of Wild Flora of the Northeast.Silk Degrees: A Tale of Moths and People,
Part One
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