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Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases
U.S. Department of Agriculture
  1. Home
  2. Smilax officinalis

Smilax officinalis (Smilacaceae)

Common Names
Sarsaparilla
How this plant is used
Medicinal
View the list of ubiquitous chemicals
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List of plant chemicals.
Click on column headings to sort table by that column. *Unless otherwise noted all references are to (Duke, 1992)
Chemical Name Activity Count Plant Part Low Parts Per Million High Parts Per Million Standard Deviation Reference
SILICON 4 Root 2.0 8.8 -0.30 *
SODIUM 1 Root 4.4 21.0 -0.50 *
STARCH 5 Root 52500.0 250000.0 -0.27 *
THIAMINE 0 Root 0.2 0.9 -0.69 *
TIN 4 Root 4.0 18.0 0.15 *
WATER 0 Root 790000.0 0.14 *
ZINC 77 Root 0.5 2.6 -0.95 *
View the list of ubiquitous chemicals
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List of plant activities.
Click on column headings to sort table by that column. *Unless otherwise noted all references are to (Duke, 1992)
Activity Chemical Count Reference
Antilithic 2 Pizzorno, J.E. and Murray, M.T. 1985. A Textbook of Natural Medicine. John Bastyr College Publications, Seattle, Washington (Looseleaf).
Antilupus 1 Martindale's 28th
AntiLyme 4 *
Antilymphomic 1 *
Antimaculitic 4 *
Antimastalgic 1 Pizzorno, J.E. and Murray, M.T. 1985. A Textbook of Natural Medicine. John Bastyr College Publications, Seattle, Washington (Looseleaf).
Antimastitic 1 Pizzorno, J.E. and Murray, M.T. 1985. A Textbook of Natural Medicine. John Bastyr College Publications, Seattle, Washington (Looseleaf).
Antimeasles 1 Davies, S., and Stewart, A. 1990. Nutritional Medicine. Avon Books, New York. 509pp.
Antimelanomic 1 *
AntiMeniere's 1 Duke, J. A. Writeups or information summaries on approximately 2,000 economic plants, USDA, ARS, Beltsville, MD 20705.
Antimenopausal 4 *
Antimenorrhagic 1 Pizzorno, J.E. and Murray, M.T. 1985. A Textbook of Natural Medicine. John Bastyr College Publications, Seattle, Washington (Looseleaf).
Antimetastatic 2 *
Antimigraine 3 Martindale's 29th
Antimitral-valve-prolapse 1 *
AntiMS 1 *
Antimutagenic 2 Economic & Medicinal Plant Research, 6: 235.
Antimyalgic 1 Werbach, M. 1993. Healing with Food. Harper Collins, New York, 443 pp.
Antinephrolytic 1 *
Antinesidioblastosic 1 Martindale's 29th