Sassafras wood smell. One of my favorite smelling woods. But sassafras tea contains a lot of safrole the chemical in sassafras that makes it poisonous. These same roots were traditionally used in the making of root beer and the familiar scent is prevalent in the leaves and wood. See the articles wood allergies and toxicity and wood dust safety for more information.
One cup of tea made with 25 grams of sassafras contains about 200 mg of safrole. And the wood does kinda smell like root beer when your cutting and splitting it. Sassafras was also used as an early dental anesthetic and disinfectant. But does it make good firewood.
The wood which continues to be used in furniture was often used in flooring and bedsteads because people believed the sassafras fragrance would drive away bedbugs and other pesky insects. Sassafras wood and oil were both used in dentistry. Also one of the prettiest woods youll see. Early toothbrushes were crafted from sassafras twigs or wood because of its aromatic properties.