Smilax ornata is a perennial trailing vine with prickly stems that is native to Mexico and Central America.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families Common names include sarsaparilla, Honduran sarsaparilla, and Jamaican sarsaparilla.
It is known in Spanish as , which is derived from the words meaning "bramble" (from Basque "bramble"), and , meaning "little grape vine".SarsaparillaDavidse, G. & al. (eds.) (1994). Flora Mesoamericana 6: 1–543. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, D.F.Balick, M.J., Nee, M.H. & Atha, D.E. (2000). Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Belize with Common Names an Uses: 1-246. New York Botanic Garden Press, New York.Espejo Serena, A. & López-Ferrari, A.R. (2000). Las Monocotiledóneas Mexicanas una Sinopsis Florística 1(9-11): 1–337. Consejo Nacional de la Flora de México, México D.F.Nelson Sutherland, C.H. (2008). Catálogo de las plantes vasculares de Honduras. Espermatofitas: 1-1576. SERNA/Guaymuras, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Uses
Food
Smilax ornata is used as the basis for a soft drink known as sarsaparilla. It is also a primary ingredient in old fashioned-style licorice, in conjunction with sassafras, which was more widely available prior to studies of its potential health risks.
Traditional medicine Smilax ornata was considered by Native Americans to have medicinal properties, and was a popular European treatment for syphilis when it was introduced from the New World. In Guatemala, Smilax ornata was used in traditional medicine as a decoction of the roots. From 1820 to 1910, it was registered in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia as a treatment for syphilis.
Chemical constituents gallery
See also Hemidesmus indicus, Indian sarsaparilla Aralia nudicaulis, wild sarsaparilla or false sarsaparilla Sweet sarsaparilla (Smilax glyciphylla), a vine native to eastern Australia
References
External links
Whatever happened to the soft drink sarsaparilla? Cecil Adams, 1977