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sarsaparilla

  (săs'pə-rĭl'ə, särs'-) pronunciation
n.
    1. Any of several tropical American plants of the genus Smilax, having fragrant roots used as a flavoring.
    2. The dried roots of any of these plants.
    3. A sweet soft drink flavored with these roots.
  1. Either of two North American plants (Aralia hispida or A. nudicaulis) having umbels of small white flowers and bipinnately compound leaves.

[Spanish zarzaparrilla : zarza, bramble (from Arabic šaras, colloquial variant of širs, from šarasa, to be vicious, ultimately from šarra) + parrilla, diminutive of parra, vine.]


 
 
Food and Nutrition: sarsaparilla

1. Flavour prepared from oil of sassafras and oil of wintergreen or oil of sweet birch.

2. Roots of a South American plant (Smilax officinalis); both used to flavour the beverage called sarsparilla.

 

[sas-puh-RIHL-uh] Originally derived from the dried roots of tropical smilax vines, this flavor is usually associated with a carbonated drink popular in the mid-1800s. Today's sarsaparilla products-including the soft drink-use artificial flavorings.

 

Aromatic flavouring agent originally made from the dried roots of several tropical smilax vines. Native to the southern and western coasts of Mexico to Peru, the plants are large, perennial, climbing or trailing vines with short, thick, underground stems that produce many prickly, angular, aboveground stems supported by tendrils. Once a popular tonic, sarsaparilla now is blended with wintergreen and other flavours and used in root beer and other carbonated beverages, or to flavour and mask the taste of medicines. In North America, the strongly aromatic roots of the wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis) and false, or bristly, sarsaparilla (A. hispida), of the ginseng family, are sometimes substituted for true sarsaparilla.

For more information on sarsaparilla, visit Britannica.com.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: sarsaparilla
(särs'pərĭl'ə, săs') , common name for various plants belonging to two different classes and also for an extract from their roots, formerly much used in medicine and in beverages. True sarsaparilla is obtained from various tropical American species of the genus Smilax (which also includes the greenbrier) of the family Smilacaceae, sometimes joined in the Liliaceae (lily family). These have thick rootstalks and thin roots several feet long. Other plants used as substitutes for sarsaparilla include the wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis, although S. glauca also bears that name) and the American spikenard (A. racemosa), both North American plants of the family Araliaceae (ginseng family). The Liliaceae are classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Liliopsida, order Liliales. The Araliaceae are in the class Magnoliopsida, order Apiales.


 
Wikipedia: sarsaparilla


Sarsaparilla
Fruit_aritjol.jpg
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Liliales
Family: Smilacaceae
Genus: Smilax
Species: S. regelii
Binomial name
Smilax regelii
Killip & Morton

Sarsaparilla (Smilax regelii and other closely related species of Smilax) is a plant that comes in vine and in the case of Aralia nudicaulis L., bush variants that bears roots with many useful properties. The vine has a long prickly stem and shiny leaves, and numerous reddish-brown roots up to 3 meters long. Several species of Smilax are used in agriculture, but the Jamaican S. regelii (syn. S. officinalis) is the species preferred for commercial use. Sarsaparilla is also grown in Mexico, Central America and parts of South America. It is also grown in parts of South India, known in Telugu as Sugandhi-pala, in Kannada as sogade beru and in Tamil as Nannaari. The primary uses of sarsaparilla include the flavoring of beverages, and homeopathic medicine.

Before processing, the roots are bitter, sticky, and have a strong odor. They are dried and boiled in order to produce the extract. In beverages, oil of wintergreen or other flavors may be added in order to mask the natural bitterness of the root. Root beer made from sarsaparilla roots is generally more "birchy" than the extract used in the more popular, commercial brands.

A carbonated sarsaparilla beverage produced by several different companies in Australasia is called Sars. A sarsaparilla-flavored drink in the South East Asia is named Sarsi, but it is not commercially linked to the Australasian Sars.

Sarsaparilla in carbonated beverage form is available in the United Kingdom, produced for over 115 years by Fitzpatrick's Herbal Health, Britain's "Last Original Temperance Bar", noted for being the oldest known producer of the Sarsaparilla drink.[1]

In the United States, Target Stores has released a naturally and artificially flavored Sarsaparilla soda under the Archer Farms label.

Sasparilla vs Sarsaparilla

Although the terms "sasparilla" and "sarsaparilla" are often used interchangeably, of the two terms sarsaparilla is the correct one to use as the other is a misspelling.

See also

References

  1. ^ Welcome to Fitzpatricks. Retrieved on 2006-09-20.

 
Shopping: sarsaparilla
Sarsaparilla Root Harvesting Time
 
 

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Food and Nutrition. A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. Copyright © 1995, 2003, 2005 by A. E. Bender and D. A. Bender. All rights reserved.  Read more
Food Lover's Companion. Food Lover's Companion. Copyright © 2001 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sarsaparilla" Read more

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