Alder buckthorn
Black dogwood, black alder, frangula bark, German Pulverholz; Rhamnus frangula L.; Frangula alnus Mill.; in pharmacy Frangulae cortex
- Known today as
- Rhamnus frangula, a slender shrub of the family Rhamnaceae, widespread in Europe and northern Asia and found in English woods and thickets, rare in Scotland. Grieve distinguishes it from the common buckthorn by its more tree-like habit, the absence of thorns, its entire, feather-veined, alternate leaves, and its berries with only two or three seeds. The drug is the bark, papery young quills grey or blackish-brown outside with small whitish warts, crimson beneath when scraped, sweetish and slightly bitter, colouring the saliva yellow when chewed.
- Kind
- Plant, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- glucofrangulins
- Poisoning
- The anthranoid purgatives
- Earliest authority here
- Grieve, A Modern Herbal (1931) (A Modern Herbal, 1931)
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online · GBIF · Wikidata
Caution. A stimulant laxative, for short use only, with the same cautions as the other anthranoid laxatives: long use may impair the bowel’s function and bring dependence and loss of water and potassium. Not in pregnancy or breast-feeding, not under twelve, and not with bowel obstruction, inflammatory bowel disease, appendicitis, unexplained abdominal pain, or severe dehydration; potassium loss can strengthen cardiac glycosides. The fresh bark, Grieve warns, is an irritant poison to the gut.
Alder buckthorn: what was it used for?
A gentle laxative. Grieve calls it tonic, laxative, and cathartic, given chiefly as a fluid extract “as a gentle purgative in cases of chronic constipation,” and useful for piles; the milder alder buckthorn’s bark, she writes, proved a satisfactory substitute for the violently acting berry juice of the common buckthorn, though the much-advertised cascara sagrada had largely taken its place, “though itis a less agreeable aperient.”
Alder buckthorn: what does modern science say?
The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee accepts the bark on clinical evidence, as ‘well-established use,’ for short-term use in occasional constipation (monograph of 2019). Its assessment report requires at least 7 per cent of glucofrangulins, the emodin glycosides held responsible for the action, and explains that in the fresh bark they are in a reduced form and in stored bark oxidised, which is why the bark is stored. It found no recent clinical studies of frangula bark alone in constipation, the laxative effect resting mainly on pharmacological data, expert opinion, and clinical experience.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- glucofrangulinsthe emodin glycosides held responsible for the action; at least 7 per cent required, reduced in the fresh bark and oxidised in stored bark
- Mechanism
- A stimulant laxative of the anthranoid kind; its assessment report rests the effect mainly on pharmacological data, expert opinion, and clinical experience.
- Syndrome
- The anthranoid purgatives
- Standing
- European Union herbal monograph (2019): well-established use, for short-term use in occasional constipation.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. European Union herbal monograph on Frangulae cortex (Frangula bark). EMA/HMPC/726261/2016, 25 September 2019. Read in full · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Assessment report on Frangulae cortex. EMA/HMPC/483550/2018, 25 September 2019. Read in part · the text read
- Grieve, M. A Modern Herbal, “Buckthorns.” As published on botanical.com. Read in full · the text read
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Alder buckthorn: what lore surrounds it?
Stripped of its bark, the wood makes a very light, inflammable charcoal, preferred by gunpowder makers, who named the shrub black dogwood; in Germany, for the same reason, it is Pulverholz, powder-wood. The bark and leaves gave a yellow dye much used in Russia, and the berries green, blue, and grey. Folkard records that the Mongols made their idols of its wood, for its rich hue.
Alder buckthorn: what did the older authorities say?
- Grieve, A Modern Herbal (1931)
- “Dried seasoned bark from one to twoyears old alone should be used, as the freshlystripped bark acts as an irritant poison on the gastro-intestinal canal.” Kept for a length of time, she says, its action becomes gradually less violent “and more like that of rhubarb.” Lozenges of it were dispensed as ‘Aperient Fruit Lozenges.’
Sources
- Grieve, M. A Modern Herbal, “Buckthorns.” As published on botanical.com. Read in full · the text read
- Folkard, R. (1884). Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics, “Buckthorn.” Project Gutenberg, 44638. Read in part · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. European Union herbal monograph on Frangulae cortex (Frangula bark). EMA/HMPC/726261/2016, 25 September 2019. Read in full · the text read
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. Assessment report on Frangulae cortex. EMA/HMPC/483550/2018, 25 September 2019. Read in part · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Sources
- 4 cited: 2 read in full, 2 read in part.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
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Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published October 16, 2026
- Chicago
“Alder buckthorn.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 16, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/alder-buckthorn.
- MLA
“Alder buckthorn.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 16 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/alder-buckthorn. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Alder buckthorn. (2026, October 16). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/alder-buckthorn
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See Also
Poisoned alike: the anthranoid purgatives
Cascara · Yellow dock · Cassia, flower of · Rhubarb · Compound fumitory · Myrobalans · Diacatholicon · Madder · the syndrome, with all of them →
Also in M. Grieve
Bearberry in M. Grieve · Yerba mate in M. Grieve · Blackcurrant in M. Grieve · Witch hazel in M. Grieve · everything M. Grieve names →
Drawing on the same sources: Grieve, Folkard
Alkanet · Agrimony · Aloe · Wild rue · The amulet herbs · the bibliography →
Historical description, not medical advice.
