Welcome to Monthly Medicine for September 2023. September is one of my favourite months because it the month of my birth and the birth of my son. I had the absolute privilege of sharing my birthday with my Grandma so, for me, and perhaps for you too, it is an extra special time for us to connect with our ancestors. It feels like my personal new year and as a life long learner, and a woman of degrees and certificates, September has always brought in that fresh start, new school year kind of energy. It’s exciting!

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, September is a time of harvest. We are reaping the rewards of our hard work in our garden metaphorically and literally. There are so many different foods ready for eating fresh, freezing, dehydrating, and of course, a ton of canning to do in the kitchen. Where I live, in Nogojiwanong / Peterborough, just as we start to enjoy the cool mornings again, there is usually a heat wave that comes in September, which makes the kitchen work just as warm as the peak of summer was outside. I love being in the kitchen regardless. Food is one of my favourite ways to connect with nature and show my love to others. A true feast is in order in September!

This month, we’re going to spend some time getting to know Elder. As our Vitamin D dwindles and our engagement with others increases as we move indoors or start sending the kids back to school, the benefits of the Elder berry can really come in handy.

This month we will explore…

The Monthly Medicine of Elder
- Elder Folklore
- Elder Herbal Monograph
Harvesting Considerations for Elder
Elderberry Syrup and other delicious Elderberry Recipes
Learning Herbal Actions, Botanical Descriptions, and Key Constituents

Let’s dive in!

Folklore

There is an abundance of folklore about the Elder tree and it’s really interesting to try and place it in a timeline. Who was the first person to consider this tree an elder? How did they know she was connected strongly to the spirit world? We are so disconnected nowadays, it’s hard to believe that this magical tree would just be “known” to those who encountered it. So let’s give it a try and get to know this being.

Elder comes from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘aeld’, which means, “to kindle” or “fire”. Legend has it, the hallowed out elder stems were used to blow on kindling from a safe distance to help ignite the flames.*

The latin name, Sambucus, comes from the Greco-Roman instrument fashioned from the wood of the Elder - the sambuca, or sackbut.

an erotic stringed instrument that was used during symposiums and orgiastic worships during the antiquity. It was probably invented by the poet Ibycus (6th B.C.) and first played by a wandering woman called Sibyl. The sambuca player was using both hands while playing this ancient harp-like instrument.

- Luthieros Instruments*

It is widely believed the hallowed stem was also used to make wands (like the famous Elder wand in Harry Potter), whistles and flutes. The branches of the Elder are hard and easily polished on the outside but hallow with soft pith, easily removed on the inside, so it was an excellent option to make woodwind instruments, producing music for faeries and similar spirits!*

Learn how to make your own Elder flute!

The Elder has a strong connection to the Pagans of Europe. Witches and fairies were especially connected to the Elder tree. Witches were said to be able to turn themselves into the Elder when needed, and the tree was believed to protect the fae.

Elder was considered sacred across Nothern Europe, used in ceremony and magical rituals by Druids who saw the Elder as a gift from the Earth Mother who was said to reside within the Elder tree. They would gather her offerings of flowers, berries, bark, wood, and roots as blessings and use them in ritual and ceremony. Elder wine was made from her flowers and was used by Druids for clairvoyance* and connection the faeries*. The worship of trees and their deities was banned by the Holy Roman Empire in the 9th century and again by the Church at the Council of Trier in 1227 in Europe*.

As religious narrative took hold, Elders were used in a similar fashion, but under a new reigm and paradigm, planted close to homes to warm off the Devil and witches, dried leaves tossed into graves to protect the souls of the dead, and crosses of elder placed on grave mounds*. The flowers with their pungent sweet smell were used in wedding ceremonies, thought to bring good fortune, ward off evil spirits and bring blessings to the household.

As we will soon learn, Elder energy is feminine energy. As a motherly figure, Elder is a symbol, the portal of the life, death, and rebirth cycle. So in many ways, although I haven’t found any explicit references, the folklore of the Elder is womb medicine. The cycles of bearing fruit, the resilience, the regeneration, the portal between worlds, all resemble the medicine of the womb.

Herbal Monograph

Elder / Sambucus nigra

Otherwise known as: Elder, black elder, blue elderberry, bore tree, bourtree, common elder, elderberry, elkhorn, sweet elder.

In the medieval era, the tree was also called*

boure tree
hylder
old gal
pipe tree
rob elder
sweet elder
tree of doom

Plant family: Adoxaceae (formerly Caprifoliaceae)

What parts do we use? Flower (dried), berry (cooked)

Where did this plant originate? Elder originally was found in Europe and parts of Asia and Africa and made it’s way, like most things, to North America. There are several different species, blue, black and red elder.

Astrology: Elder is a feminine energy and govered by Venus. Her element is water.*

Elder’s Botanical Description:

What is a Botanical Description?

A botanical description is a breakout of each part of the plant, so you can identify it in the wild! Elder trees grow anywhere from 10 to 30 feet tall. Here’s an amazing look at the Elder through the seasons.

How to Harvest Elder

Where can you find it?

Elders grow in a variety of areas. They are hardy and adaptable and can be found all over North America. Sometimes you’ll see them along public trails, roadsides, streams or rivers. The birds love Elder berries too so they help to spread this beautiful spirit around our world. Remember to study the botanical description in order to identify the plant when you’re out foraging.

Harvesting Flowers?

Elder flowers can be removed from the stalk. Follow the flowers to find the base and pluck. Only remove a few clusters so the tree can still produce berries later in the year. Remember, we need flowers to turn into berries? The flowers smell both sweet and musty. They are high in antioxidants, immune modulators, and allow excess heat to escape capilaries for a healthy fever sweat, known as a relaxing diaphoretic (this action is also excellent for skin health). Elderflower clears out stagnation, cools, brightens, and refreshens!*

Harvesting Berries?

Wait until the berries are totally ripe before harvesting. They’ll go from green to dark purple. Start by harvesting the berries with the stalk for ease and then when you get home, seperate the stems frm the berries best you can. These are an immune power house in the initial stages of a cold and flu. Taking elderberry frequently stops the illness from creeping into other areas of the body and helps the T cells to escort the virus out. This helps speed up the healing process and as a result, shortens the lifespace of a cold or flu in your life. Taking elderberry regularly can also help prevent frequency of colds and flus in your life. Two things are important - taking elderberry as soon as you feel a twinge of sickness, and take it frequently. Raw berries can make you sick, but cooked makes them safe to consume as food.

Is harvesting Elder sustainable?

According to the Woodland Trust in the UK, Elder might be susceptible to black fly and the sap-suckling red spider mite (source). It is considered to be sustainable and plentiful. As always, consider your foraging habits and your impact on the plant and only take what you need.

Let’s learn about Herbal Actions

Herbal Actions are ways we categorize the potential function of the plant medicine in the body. Often times plants have many herbal actions which is what makes them so amazing and what makes asking what “herb works for X medical condition” a benign question. Instead, we use the concept of herbal actions to help us create balanced formulas and to help us understand the magical and medicinal potential of the plant.

Elder’s Herbal Actions are:

Analgesic
Antinflammatory
Antioxidant
Antiviral
Diuretic
Immune Stimulant
Immune modulator
Relaxing diaphoretic

Let’s learn about Key Consituents

Key Constituents are another way of saying the parts of the plants and what they offer for the body.

In Elder, we find the following Key constituents

In the Berries: vitamin C, anthocyanins, flavonoids

In the Flowers: mucilage, flavonoids, volatile oils, quercetin, free fatty acids, triternenes, phenolic acid, minerals, sterols, sugars, tannins.

In the Leaves: cyanogenic glycosides

source

Let’s learn about Dosing

Dosing is how much of the medicine you can take safely and effectively. Now, the fun part is dosing is going to vary from person to person and depend on so many different factors but there are general guidelines that each version of a medicine will follow and then you can adjust from there based on how YOU feel the medicine is working. One bit of information that would shape this would be any safety considerations.

Generally speaking, I suggest 1 tbsp of Elderberry syrup every 1-2 hours when actively feeling ill. Preventatively, you may take 1 tbsp per day.

Let’s learn about Safety Concerns

Safety concerns are warnings that you might need to head about the plant medicine in question. Sometimes safety concerns can be confusing because we rely on scientific studies to tell us if a plant is safe to consume or not. This can be a reallyhelpful tool, but we must also keep in mind that scientific studies are inherently biased, influenced by politics, and do not tend to test on vulnerable populations like pregnant or breastfeeding women, and babies and children. So, as always, please do your own research to make an informed decision for yourself and your family.

When researching, the phrase contraindications for _______________ (name of plant) will bring up any concerns and also drug interactions this plant may have.

Elder berries should not be eaten raw and should always be cooked. Raw berries may cause stomach upset or diarrhea.

Recipes

Easy Homemade Elderberry Jam

Ingredients

1 cup fresh elder berries
1 cup sugar
juice of 1 large lemon

Recipe

Remove the Elder berries from the stalks with a fork. Rinse in cold water. Add the berries to a bowl with the sugar and stir. Leave overnight to macerate.

Pour the elderberry mixture into a deep sided pan and add lemon juice.

Bring to a boil for about 15 minutes till a setting point of 105C is reached

Ladle into sterilized jars

Use on toast, scones, or as cake filling. You could also use as a glaze on game birds or turkey. RECIPE FROM LARDERLOVE.COM

Homemade Elderberry Syrup

Ingredients

1 cup of Dried Elderberries
Cloves
Star Anise
Cinnamon
Ginger
Black Pepper
Cardamom
Honey
Brandy

Recipe

In a large pot combine your dried berries with 2 cups of water.

Add

1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder OR 2 whole cinnamon sticks
½ teaspoon of cloves (ground or whole)
2 heaping tablespoons of freshly grated raw ginger
2-3 whole star anise
2-3 whole cardamom pods
handful of black peppercorns

Simmer and reduce down to 1/2 of the original volume. Go low and slow so you can extract all of that yummy plant goodness. I like to squish the berries with the back of the spoon as they rehydrate and cook down. Once you’ve achieved 1/2 of the original volume, turn off the heat. Once the berries are cool enough, strain them into a vessel. If you have a press, or using your hands, squeeze and press as much as you can out of the berries and herbs. A nutbag or cheesecloth would work well. You may have to squish the berries with a spoon. Careful! The stunning colour of the elderberries can stain your hands.

Add the strained liquid to a pot. Note the volume. Add equal amounts of honey, or, if you don’t like things too sweet, add half and stir to combine. Honey makes the liquid into a syrup and also acts as a preservative. I like to go low and slow with this part of the process too. I prefer my syrup to be on the thicker side so I reduce and test it as I go. Once you’ve reached your desired thickness you can add some generous glugs of brandy. Brandy works as a sedative which is nice when you need rest, but also as a preservative. Time to bottle up! Use the herbs again for tea or return to the earth via compost.

Don’t forget to store in the fridge.

Experiment by adding other herbs and natural spices that tickle your fancy.

How to Use Elderberry Syrup

Preventatively, take once a day during the cold and flu season. Or, as soon as you feel a tickle in your throat, take a teaspoon at a time and continue to take a teaspoon throughout the day until you feel better.

Try it on your pancakes or with soda water!

Elderberry Powder

Ingredients

Dried elderberries

Recipe

Using a grinder, grind your dried elderberries into a fine powder. Jar and that’s it! You have Elderberry powder!

Properly dehydrated berries will store as powder for up to a year.

Add 1-2 teaspoons into your breakfast smoothie, greek yogurt. or oatmeal. Add into capsules.

Is Elderberry Syrup safe for Babies?

According to some people, babies younger than 1 year old should not be given honey. Why? A bacteria that can be found in soil or dust can cause botulism in under developed gastrointestinal tracts.

However, it’s really important to note the number of cases and the age at which botulism in infants has been documented.

From 1979 to 2019, 63 laboratory-confirmed cases of infant botulism were confirmed by the Health Canada Botulism Reference Service and the BCCDC Public Health Laboratory for an annual rate of 4.30 cases per million live births. From 1983 to 2018, 57 cases of infant botulism were reported to the CNDSS. Of the 63 cases confirmed by the reference laboratories, the median age of onset was 16 weeks with a range of 2 to 52 weeks.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8340675/

So, to put it in perspective, in approximately 40 years there have been 63 confirmed cases across Canada.

Does this warrant such fear for the under 1 crowd when consuming an herbal remedy? How do you feel?

REFERENCES

https://daily.jstor.org/plant-of-the-month-elderberry/

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/a-z-of-british-trees/elder/

https://herbarium.theherbalacademy.com/monograph/elder/

Zakay-Rones, Z., Varsano, N., Zlotnik, M., Manor, O., Regev, L., Schlesinger, M., & Mumcuoglu, M. (1995). Inhibition of several strains of influenza virus in vitro and reduction of symptoms by an elderberry extract (Sambucus nigra L.) during an outbreak of influenza B Panama. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 1(4), 361-369. doi: 10.1089/acm.1995.1.361

Zakay-Rones, Z., Thom, E., Wollan, T., & Wadstein, J. (2004). Randomized study of the efficacy and safety of oral elderberry extract in the treatment of influenza A and B virus infections. Journal of International Medical Research, 32(2), 132-140.

Tiralongo, E., Wee, S. S., & Lea, R. A. (2016). Elderberry supplementation reduces cold duration and symptoms in air-travellers: A randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial. Nutrients, 8(4), 182. doi: doi.org/10.3390/nu8040182

Kong, F. K. (2009). Pilot clinical study on a proprietary elderberry extract: efficacy in addressing influenza symptoms. Online Journal of Pharmacology and Pharmacokinetics, 5, 32-43.

Hawkins, J., Baker, C., Cherry, L., & Dunne, E. (2019). Black elderberry (Sambucus nigra) supplementation effectively treats upper respiratory symptoms: A meta-analysis of randomized, controlled clinical trials. Complementary therapies in medicine, 42, 361-365.

Vlachojannis, J. E., Cameron, M., & Chrubasik, S. (2010). A systematic review on the sambuci fructus effect and efficacy profiles. Phytotherapy Research: An International Journal Devoted to Pharmacological and Toxicological Evaluation of Natural Product Derivatives, 24(1), 1-8. doi: 10.1002/ptr.2729

Senica, M., Stampar, F., Veberic, R., & Mikulic‐Petkovsek, M. (2017). The higher the better? Differences in phenolics and cyanogenic glycosides in Sambucus nigra leaves, flowers and berries from different altitudes. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 97(8), 2623-2632. doi: 10.1002/jsfa.8085

Centers for Disease Control (CDC. (1984). Poisoning from elderberry juice--California. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 33(13), 173.

Knudsen, B. F., & Kaack, K. V. (2013, June). A review of human health and disease claims for elderberry (sambucus nigra) fruit. In I International Symposium on Elderberry 1061 (pp. 121-131). doi: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2015.1061.12

Pogorzelski, E. (1982). Formation of cyanide as a product of decomposition of cyanogenic glucosides in the treatment of elderberry fruit (Sambucus nigra). Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 33(5), 496-498.

Bergner, Paul. “Sambucus: Elderberry,” Medical Herbalism: Materia Medica and Pharmacy, 2001.

Remington, Joseph, and Horatio Wood. The US Dispensatory, 20th ed. 1918.

Grieve, Maud. A Modern Herbal. Mrs. M Grieve, 1931.

Hoffman, David. Medical Herbalism: The Science and Practice of Herbal Medicine. Inner Traditions/ Bear & Co, 2003.

Skenderi, Gazmend. Herbal Vade Mecum. Herbacy Press, 2003.

Balch, Phyllis A. Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 5th ed. Avery, 2010.

Hoffman, David. The Herbal Handbook: A User’s Guide to Medical Herbalism. Healing Arts Press, 1998.

“Minor Fruits: Elderberries” (2015) in Cornell Fruit Resources, Department of Horticulture, Cornell University.

Amidon, Caroline. “History and Lore of Sambucus,” The Herb Society of America’s Essential Guide to Elderberry, 2013.

Kavasch, E. Barrie. “Ethnobotany of Elderberry,” The Herb Society of America’s Essential Guide to Elderberry, 2013.