But don't tell the feds where Brer Rabbit is. Could they arrest him? Is calamus merely declared "unsafe," see 1968 status at //www.viable-herbal.com/singles/herbs/s741.htm; or does that decision about "unsafe" make its sale or use illegal. Not sure. The calamus root has a long history as a remedy for many ailments, and an enhancer for other matters, see this Natural Herb sales catalogue describing what has been alleged, at ://dotcrawler.com/natural-herbs.html/ It was even found in the tomb of Tutankhamen, so they say.
Native Americans used it to communicate with spirits. The North American variety, one of four worldwide, seems to be the safest - others have carcinogenic qualities (on people or just rats, like the sassafras?)Headache, toothache, fatigue, hangover, cough,gas, diabetes, asthma, on and on. Promote real testing anyone, or since it can't be patented, do the drug companies not touch it? No profit?
How does calamus figure in Uncle Remus?
Here, Brer Rabbit outsmarted Brer Fox, shown wrapped up in the flannel in the rocker, in the first tale of the Uncle Remus cluster, "Uncle Remus Initiates the Little Boy," see Uncle Remus Initiates the Little Boy: Calamus Root story, and Brer Rabbit ducked out fast when he saw he might be the dinner to which he had been invited-- and said he just had to get a "calamus root" to eat with supper. Fast escape.
And Brer Fox got back at him in Tar-Baby - "I done laid in some calamus root...," sez Brer Fox, sezzee. Brer Rabbit loved it. Tricked with it.
Look it up. You will find all this about a calamus root: health and recreation.
The viable-herbal site, above, starts with calamus being used for centuries as an expectorant and anesthetic. It has been used to focus the mind and stop smoking, increase endurance, stamina. It is also a "uterine stimulant," so pregnant or nursing women should not use it (does uterine stimulant mean abortifacient? how to find out?)
Other names; and its uses. It is also known as bittersweet, or Sweet Flag, for herbal use to stimulate digestion, can be chewed or made as an infusion, helps with anorexia (says this site) by stimulating appetite and mind; has anti-anxiety effect; and treats motion sickness. See //www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=8800.
"Acorus calamus" is also a plant sacred to the Cree Indians. There are many other names for it, specific to different and other tribes. See //users.lycaeum.org/~iamklaus/acorus.htm. Some of the effects are hallucinations, euphoria, stimulation.
The Dakota Indians use it to treat diabetes (will someone please follow that up??). See Lycaeum.org site. It was also psychoactive and known as one of the "witches' flying ointments." Same site. Then see Exodus 30:22-25 - calamus root was one of the ingredients of a "holy anointing oil," says same site. Its "ketoret" component is an ingredient in certain incense, Exodus 3:34-38, says //www.alchemy-works.com/herb_calamus.html - also used in snuff.
(have we found Biblical support for mild hallucinagens). sites look at the same words and say no. See .freeanointing.org/Calamus_is_a_lie. So, the debate goes on, and that is why we try to get back to original sources and people who actually know a language, not just the later interpreters with agendas one way or another. Keep looking.
Walt Whitman, poet, wrote about calamus in his "Leaves of Grass." See //findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3708/is_200407/ai_n9452864. That site also notes that calamus was known to blacks in the rural south.
Enter the government governing. The FDA gave (or did others do it for them?) massive doses to rats over a long time and the rats got cancer. So, after 1950, the FDA declared it unsafe for human consumption. I understand that the FDA cannot regulate food, and surely a natural plant is a food, but they called it a food "additive" instead and they can regulate additives.
However, the FDA's studies show that only the variety in India has the beta-aserone, the carcinogen in it, the North American variety only has aserone, but aserone can be made into other things that site readers probably know about. Same site: //users.lycaeum.org/~iamklaus/acorus.htm.
So, the FDA is regulating a food ingestible, something that is not addictive, not harmful when used as directed, as any herb, and apparently just because it can be used as an alternative to liquor for recreation? Could it be that people, real people at the FDA benefit by its relationship to the liquor lobby. Is that true? Go check. Also look into some of the other issues raised by this initially simple look into what is a calamus root anyway:
Food additive: formal definition
Quote
(s) The term "food additive" means any substance the intended use of which results or may reasonably be expected to result, directly or indirectly, in its becoming a component or otherwise affecting the characteristics of any food (including any substance intended for use in producing, manufacturing, packing, processing, preparing, treating, packaging, transporting, or holding food; and including any source of radiation intended for any such use), if such substance is not generally recognized, among experts qualified by scientific training and experience to evaluate its safety, as having been adequately shown through scientific procedures (or, in the case of a substance used in food prior to January 1, 1958, through either scientific procedures or experience based on common use in food) to be safe under the conditions of its intended use; except that such term does not include—
(1) a pesticide chemical residue in or on a raw agricultural commodity or processed food; or
(2) a pesticide chemical; or
(3) a color additive; or
(4) any substance used in accordance with a sanction or approval granted prior to the enactment of this paragraph 4 pursuant to this Act, the Poultry Products Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 451 and the following) or the Meat Inspection Act of March 4, 1907 (34 Stat. 1260), as amended and extended (21 U.S.C. 71 and the following);
(5) a new animal drug; or
(6) an ingredient described in paragraph (ff) in, or intended for use in, a dietary supplement.
Unquote. From//www.fda.gov/opacom/laws/fdcact/fdcact1.htm......................................................................................
Calamus is also listed in that same site as one of the "carminative" herbs (this means that it relieves gas or cleanses bowels, see //www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=24293)
Quote
Minor carminative herbs
Anise (Pimpinella anisum)
Caraway (Carum carvi)
Coriander (Coriandrum sativum, C. vulgare, C. microcarpum)
Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)
Calamus (Acorus calamus)
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
Unquote.
From ://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~comm/ds-econ4.html
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With more important things to do, including tending to its apparent failures to protect in ways the law requires, do your own search for FDA fail as a start on that, is a ban on Brer Rabbit's beloved calamus really necessary?
Then look up why on earth is simple sassafras also banned. Once started a silly site about the historical uses of sassafras, at Sassafras, Centuries of Uses, then never got back to tidy it up. There was a similar testing of rats, I understand, but the massive testing on rats backfires because rodents are naturally "allelopathic" to sassafras - naturally averse - a protection developed by the sassafras plant to keep from being totally eaten by beavers, say, near waterways. Look that up, too.
The alchemy-works site above does say that calamus grows in water, or near it. If it developed protections against rodent ingestion, no wonder the critters got sick from it. Come on, FDA. Think. Think. If the ban is because it can be converted into a drug chemically similar to mescaline www.erowid.org/chemicals/tma2/. Mescaline is from cactus, or peyote, see www.drugeducation.net/mescaline.htm. Those are issues not related to the 1950's cancer finding. Read also about caffeine, aspirin, alcohol and tobacco at the drugeducation site. Some things get singled out, some don't.
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After centuries of uses, however, the FDA said in 1958 (?) we should not use it at all - see reasons here, and question it as you will. Still, the calamus root figures prominently in parts of Uncle Remus, Legends of the Old Plantation, the first section of "Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings," by Joel Chandler Harris 1890, 1895, 1908, 1921, Grosset & Dunlap. This is from the 1921 edition.
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