Sarsaparilla Root Cut
Sarsaparilla is a plant of the Smilax species. Sarsaparilla is a woody vine that produces small flowers and either red, black, or blue berry like fruit. Sarsaparilla is native to South America and the Caribbean where the Jamaican or Honduran Smilax ornata and Mexican Smilax aristolochiifolia originate.
Sarsaparilla fruit was once used to make popular sarsaparilla soft drinks, which has a taste similar to root beer. Sarsaparilla has also been used by herbalists in traditional medicine for hundreds of years because of its medicinal properties. Herbalists have used sarsaparilla’s anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and toxin binding properties to purify the blood and treat skin conditions. Sarsaparilla is also nutritious and contains vitamins A, B-complex, C and D, and minerals iron, manganese, sodium, silicon, sulfur, copper, Zinc, and iodine.
Sarsaparilla has been used in traditional medicine to treat skin conditions like psoriasis and leprosy, rheumatoid arthritis and joint pain, headaches, colds, and sexual impotence. Scientific studies done on sarsaparilla have isolated compounds responsible for its medicinal properties.