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Also known as- Sambucus spp (Nigra for berries and Canadensis for flowers)
American Elder, Common Elder, Black Elder, Bour Tree, and European Black Elder.
Introduction
Native Americans used the flowers, berries, and bark of elderberry trees to treat fevers and joint pain for hundreds of years, but elderberry's real claim to fame is as a cure for the flu. Israeli researchers have developed five formulas based on elderberry fruit that have been clinically proven to prevent and ameliorate all kinds of influenza.
Constituents
Potassium nitrate, sambucin, sambunigrin, sugars. The complex sugars of the leaf are the immune-active fraction.
Parts Used
Most commonly the flowers or berries. Dried fruits are less bitter than fresh.
The stems and leaves are poisonous.
Typical Preparations
Teas, tinctures, encapsulations, syrups, wine, cordials, and even ketchup, often combined with propolis or echinacea.
The Elder Statesman Of Elderberries
At the Paracelsus House nature cure center in Karlstein, Austria. Father Hermann Josef Weidinger, and thirty-seven assistants prepare herbal remedies for dozens of health conditions. The eighty-two year old Austrian Catholic priest and herbal healer regards elderberry with the same reverence as Hippocrates. Before he discusses their healing powers, he serves tall glasses of imponderably dark purple elder juice. “This is the very best thing for your health,” he says with a kind and knowing smile. The juice is sensationally delicious, and I wonder to myself why it isn’t yet vastly popular in the US.
Father Weidinger has published over a dozen books on natural therapies, and dozens of herbal health formulas bear his imprimateur. “Elderberry cleanses the digestive system and promotes healthy elimination. This is most essential to good health.” he explains. Austria’s best known nature healer, Father Weidinger believes that elderberry protects the body from serious diseases. He also believes that elderberry enhances both the body and mind. “Elderberry reduces inflammation and relieves the body of impurities. In this manner it also balances the emotions.” Weidinger employs concentrated elderberry juice as a mainstay in his herbal cleansing and healing programs, and claims that the juice has helped thousands. “I am convinced that elderberry juice helps to prevent many serious diseases, including cancer” he declares.
Elderberry is more than a prized folk remedy of old herbalists. Modern research conducted in Europe shows that elderberries are potent sources of anthocyanins, powerful antioxidant pigments which boost immunity, maintain healthy tissue, promote cardiovascular health and reduce stress. Ongoing research in Germany and Austria is focusing on these purple antioxidant anthocyanins to determine what other health-imbuing powers they may possess, and how they work.
Potent antioxidants
Oxidation is the process by which cells and tissue “rust,” due to exposure to certain reactive species of oxygen. Oxidation is a factor in numerous diseases including arthritis and other conditions involving the breakdown of tissue, and it is one of the primary processes of aging. In Karlsruhe at Germany’s Bundesforschungsanstalt research center for food, scientists conduct studies on dietary agents that can reduce oxidation and protect cells. Research led by Dr. Gerhard Rechkemmer shows that purple anthocyanins found in elderberries possess approximately three times the antioxidant capacity of carotenoids. Per gram, purple elderberry anthocyanins exhibit more protective antioxidant activity than beta carotene, vitamin C or vitamin E. But Dr. Rechkemmer and his team of thirty scientists are bedevilled by the anthocyanins. “These compounds are hard to track as they are metabolized. They disappear, and their metabolic by-products are not yet known.”
The work conducted at Bundesforschungsanstalt supports previous research suggesting that anthocyanins protect cells from oxidative damage caused by numerous factors including environmental toxins and poor diet. Many researchers assume that the potent purple pigments in elderberries help to scavenge destructive free radicals and maintain healthy tissue. But Dr. Rechkemmer wants to know without a shadow of a doubt. “I anticipate more very good news to emerge from our anthocyanin research over the next few years,” Rechkemmer says. His investigations do show that elderberry anthocyanins enhance immune function by boosting the production of cytokines. These unique proteins act as messengers in the immune system to help regulate immune response, thus helping to defend the body against disease. When asked if he thinks that further berry research will reveal additional health benefits, Rechkemmer nods. “I believe so. But the anthocyanins are extremely hard to track in blood plasma, so we do not know exactly what they are doing in the body. We must discover their mode of action and go beyond belief to certain knowledge.”
Heart protection
At the scientific heart of the elderberry boom, Doctors Werner Pfannhauser and Michael Murkovic at Austria’s University of Graz have conducted research showing that elderberry extract reduces oxidation of LDL cholesterol and exhibits a beneficial antioxidant effect in the body. While cholesterol is an essential component manufactured in the liver, oxidation of LDL cholesterol is implicated as a major contributing factor to cardiovascular disease, especially heart attacks and strokes. The results with elderberry do not come as a surprise to the researchers at Graz. Previous research has shown that anthocyanins reduce adhesion of platelets to blood vessel walls, thus reducing the risk of atherosclerosis, hardening of the arteries. The cleaner your arteries, the more efficiently your heart works. In vitro studies show that anthocyanins from elderberry demonstrate even higher antioxidant activity than highly touted bilberry. “I am certain that elderberry is beneficial,” notes Murcovic. When I tell Dr. Murcovic that scientists in Germany have not been able to track anthocyanins in the body, he smiles. “We have.”
Stress Reduction
Of all emerging research on elderberry, none is more surprising than the apparent capacity of elderbery and its anthocyanin-rich extract appear to reduce stress. This wholly unexpected finding was discovered by Austrian endocrinologist Dr. Sepp Porta, who conducted stress studies using elderberry concentrate on a group of volunteers. “We only gave these people the elderberry for ten days,” he notes with expansive hand gestures. “We put them through typical stress tests, all the usual physical challenges, and the results were so remarkable, I checked them over and over.” In the study, various bio-markers of stress, including glucose, magnesium and other plasma chemical levels, were analyzed. “What we found was that elderberry has this extraordinary effect for reducing stress,” Porta found that daily intake of elderberry extract greatly decreased susceptibility to stress, and significantly shortened recovery time from physical exertion.
Dr. Porta’s research into the stress-reducing effects of elderberry has attracted strong interest on the part of the US Air Force. In a novel collaboration, cadets on loan now work with Sepp Porta to conduct follow-up tests, crunch data, and advance his findings. Their reasoning is that if elderberry is as potent a stress buster as it appears, it could be valuable to troops, especially jet pilots whose stress load is daunting.
How to benefit from elderberries?
As far as I can determine, the best way to enjoy the health benefits of elderberry is to follow the sage advice of Father Weidinger and drink a ten ounce glass of the sweet, rich, purple juice every day. It tastes delicious, improves digestion and elimination, and boosts energy. But elderberry juice isn’t yet so easy to find in the US. Thus I also recommend concentrated elderberry extract. High anthocyanin elderberry extracts (6% - 13%) are finding their way onto health food store shelves. A daily dose of 250 – 500 milligrams of high anthocyanin elderberry extract will impart the benefits cited in the research above. Sometimes the simplest things offer the most value. Elderberries, regarded as superior healers since antiquity, have made the transition into modern times with their reputation and value deservedly intact.
Summary
Extensive research show that elder stop the production of hormone-like cytokines that direct a class of white blood cells known as neutrophils to cause inflammation, especially in influenza and arthritis. On the other hand, elder increases the production non-inflammatory infection-fighting cytokines as much as 10 fold.
Elder berries are known to be effective against eight strains of influenza. This suggests that elder be superior to vaccines in preventing flu, because flu vaccines are only effective against known strains of flu, whereas the virus is continually mutating to new strains. Vaccines have another draw back: over half of people who get them report side effects.
Dr. Madeleine Mumcuoglu, of Hadassah-Hebrew University in Israel found that elderberry disarms the enzyme viruses use to penetrate healthy cells in the lining of the nose and throat. Taken before infection, it prevents infection. Taken after infection, it prevents spread of the virus through the respiratory tract.
In a clinical trial, 20% of study subjects reported significant improvement within 24 hours, 70% by 48 hours, and 90% claimed complete cure in three days. In contrast, subjects receiving the placebo required 6 days to recover.
Precautions
None for flowers or berries.
When using berries it must be from the nigra species as others are known to be poisonous.
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