View single post by Hellcat
 Posted: Wed May 18th, 2011 04:42 am
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Hellcat
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Joined: Tue Nov 15th, 2005
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Mana: 
 Sarsaparilla is one of many possible ingredient in root beer. Cresswell also mentions that it's root and sassafras root are both traditional ingredients in sarsaparilla soda. And yes I spelled it sarsaparilla instead of sasparilla as the Smilax regelii plant is commonly known as the sarsaparilla which gets shortened to sasparilla. No cclue about that though. However, you might be interested in this site (http://www.nutrasanus.com/sarsaparilla.html). According to what it says, they were using it in the 1850s as a syphilis cure among other things. Early root beers were touted for their helth benifits. So it'd not be terribly surprising to find it among the igredients of root beers of the time.