Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A colorless or pale yellow oily liquid, C10H10O2, derived from oil of sassafras and other essential oils and used in making perfume and soap. Safrole was banned as a food additive in the United States because it is a suspected carcinogen.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun organic chemistry A
colourless to yellowliquid , a component ofsassafras oil and browncamphor oil, withpesticidal properties.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Many foods also contain carcinogens -- chemicals that cause cancer at high dose in laboratory animals -- such as safrole in cinnamon.
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The main aromatic in hoja santa is safrole, the characteristic note of sassafras familiar from root beers, and a suspected carcinogen.
On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Harold McGee 2004
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The main aromatic in hoja santa is safrole, the characteristic note of sassafras familiar from root beers, and a suspected carcinogen.
On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Harold McGee 2004
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The recipe requires oil of sassafras, or another source of safrole.
Clandestine-Chemistry Shan, Yogi 1995
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Nutmeg is more dangerous ingested, but safrole rubbed in to the skin is something else...
The Guardian World News Chris Harding 2011
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A spokeswoman 288 litres of safrole oil has been seized, enough to make 2.3 million ecstasy tablets.
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For ecstasy, this involved safrole, an essential oil produced by distilling the root bark of certain trees.
Home | Mail Online 2010
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It was also revealed Australian Customs alerted police to the arrival of the machines into Australia with the raids taking place following a seven month multi-agency investigation into cocaine supply and safrole oil manufacture.
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During the raids police also seized ecstasy pills, LSD, cannabis, cocaine, steroids, and safrole oil (the precursor to MDMA).
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In July 2008, in Pursat, 170km west of Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, UN anti-drug officers destroyed 30 tons of safrole-rich oil, which was to be used by clandestine chemists in Holland to make ecstasy, using Shulgin's recipe.
Home | Mail Online 2010
bilby commented on the word safrole
"The pulse of dance-club music plays like a jungle beat, as thumping bass notes flirt with flashing lights, liquor and ecstasy of the pharmaceutical kind. Miles and miles away, a little-known multi-billion dollar battle is playing out in the remote wilderness of Cambodia, linking the club scene to the jungle in a more nefarious way. Clandestine factories deep in the Cardamom Mountains of western Cambodia are producing safrole oil — also known as sassafras oil — the main ingredient in the party drug Ecstasy."
- Sam Campbell, Harvested to make Ecstasy, Cambodia's trees are felled one by one, globalpost.com, 30 August 2009.
September 7, 2009