Sarsaparilla

a medicine extracted from the roots of several species of smilax, especially the smilax or sarsaparilla plant of South America. The root-stocks are several feet in length but are not larger than a slate pencil. They are imported in bales. Sarsaparilla root may be had in any drug store. Lowell, Massachusetts, is a famous center for the manufacture of the medical tinctures of sarsaparilla. It is a remedy taken internally for rheumatism and diseases of the skin. The "wild sarsaparillas," of American forests are akin to ginseng and spikenard, but are not botanically related to the genuine sarsaparilla. See Medicine; Drugs