From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Sarsaparilla \Sar'sa*pa*ril"la\, noun [Sp. zarzaparrilla; zarza a bramble (perhaps fr. Bisc. zartzia) + parra a vine, or Parillo, a physician said to have discovered it.] (Bot.) (a) Any plant of several tropical American species of {Smilax}. (b) The bitter mucilaginous roots of such plants, used in medicine and in sirups for soda, etc.
Note: The name is also applied to many other plants and their roots, especially to the {Aralia nudicaulis}, the wild sarsaparilla of the United States.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: any of various prickly climbing plants of the tropical American genus Smilax having aromatic roots and heart-shaped leaves
2: carbonated drink flavored with an extract from sarsaparilla root or with birch oil and sassafras
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