# Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) *Whortleberry, whorts, black whortles, whinberry, huckleberry, hurts, bleaberry, hurtleberry, French *airelle*; *Vaccinium myrtillus* L.; in pharmacy *Myrtilli fructus*, dried and fresh bilberry fruit* **Known today as.** *Vaccinium myrtillus*, a small branched shrub of heaths and mountains, rarely over a foot high, with wiry angular branches, globular wax-like flowers, and black berries “covered when quite ripe with a delicate grey bloom.” Its leathery leaves, Grieve says, are shaped somewhat like the myrtle’s, “hence its specific name,” and turn from rosy to yellowish-green and in autumn to red. The fruit is globular with a flat top, about the size of a blackcurrant. Kind: Plant > **Caution.** The dried fruit is not recommended under twelve, nor the fresh-fruit extract under eighteen; the European agency advises seeing a doctor if diarrhoea lasts more than three days, mouth complaints more than a week, or leg symptoms more than two weeks, and at once for skin inflammation, thrombophlebitis, ulcers, or sudden swelling of the legs. The dried fruit may be used in pregnancy and breastfeeding. LiverTox finds that neither the berries nor extracts have been implicated in liver injury, but notes that bilberry may affect platelet aggregation and predispose to bleeding in people on anticoagulants such as warfarin. ## What was it used for? An astringent fruit for the bowel. Grieve gives the berries as “especially valuable in diarrhoea and dysentery, in the form of syrup,” the leaves as usable like uva-ursi, a decoction of the leaves or root bark for ulcers of the mouth and throat, and says that the ancients used them largely and “Dioscorides spoke highly of them.” Culpeper found the black bilberries good in hot agues, “to cool the heat of the liver and stomach,” to bind the belly and stay vomiting, and in syrup or conserve for an old cough or an ulcer in the lungs. ## What does modern science say? The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee accepts the dried fruit as a traditional herbal medicine, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for the symptomatic treatment of mild diarrhoea and of minor inflammations of the lining of the mouth, and a dry extract of the fresh fruit, standardised to 36 per cent anthocyanosides, for the discomfort and heaviness of legs from minor venous circulatory disturbances and the symptoms of fragile capillaries of the skin (monographs of 2015). Its assessment report finds the highest total anthocyanin content among *Vaccinium* species in the bilberry, 300 to 700 mg in 100 g of ripe fruit, cyanidin glycosides chief among some fifteen anthocyanins. The trials are thin. A 2004 review of placebo-controlled trials for night vision found that the four most recent randomised trials were all negative, and that the claim that bilberry anthocyanosides improve normal night vision “is not supported by evidence from rigorous clinical studies.” A 2025 meta-analysis of eleven trials found no significant effect on fasting blood sugar, cholesterol, triglycerides, or blood pressure, and a marginal reduction in HbA1c. LiverTox, revised in 2019, finds rigorous evidence for its efficacy in any of its proposed uses lacking. ## Pharmacognosy and toxicology - **anthocyanins**: 300 to 700 mg in 100 g of ripe fruit, the highest among *Vaccinium* species; some fifteen, cyanidin glycosides chief among them **Mechanism.** Not established in the sources read for this entry. **Standing.** European Union herbal monographs (2015): traditional use, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” of the dried fruit for mild diarrhoea and mouth inflammation, and of a fresh-fruit extract for minor venous complaints of the legs and fragile skin capillaries. ## What lore surrounds it? Folkard tells the myth of its name: Myrtillus, son of Mercury and charioteer to nomaus, was bribed by Pelops to pull the linch-pin from his master’s chariot so that Pelops might win the king’s daughter Hippodamia; the dying king begged Pelops to avenge him, Pelops threw the traitor into the sea, and when the waters bore his body back to the shore Mercury changed it into the shrub that bears his name. Grieve adds that Gerard wrote that “the people of Cheshire do eate the black whortles in creame and milke as in these southern parts we eate strawberries,” and that on the Continent the berries coloured wine. ## What did the older authorities say? **Culpeper, *The Complete Herbal* (1653).** Culpeper describes two English sorts, the black, whose juice “gives a purplish colour in their hands and lips that eat and handle them,” and the red bilberry or whortle-bush of the north, with box-like leaves that last the winter. Both are under the dominion of Jupiter, and “It is a pity they are used no more in physic than they are.” The red, more binding, stop women’s courses, spitting of blood, and other fluxes. ## Sources - Grieve, M. *A Modern Herbal*, “Bilberry.” As published on botanical.com. - Culpeper, N. *The Complete Herbal*, “Bilberries, Called By Some Whorts, And Whortle-Berries.” Project Gutenberg, 49513. - Folkard, R. (1884). *Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics*, “Bilberry.” Project Gutenberg, 44638. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Myrtilli fructus siccus (Dried Bilberry fruit)*. EMA/HMPC/678995/2013, 29 September 2015. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Myrtilli fructus recens (Fresh Bilberry fruit)*. EMA/HMPC/375808/2014, 29 September 2015. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Myrtilli fructus siccus*. EMA/HMPC/555161/2013, 29 September 2015. - Canter PH & Ernst E (2004). Anthocyanosides of Vaccinium myrtillus (bilberry) for night vision--a systematic review of placebo-controlled trials. *Survey of ophthalmology*. PMID 14711439. - Talebi S, et al. (2025). Investigating the Effects of Vaccinium myrtillus Supplementation on Cardiometabolic Indices: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. *Phytotherapy research : PTR*. PMID 40751398. - LiverTox: Clinical and Research Information on Drug-Induced Liver Injury, “Bilberry.” National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, updated 2019. NCBI Bookshelf. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Myrtilli fructus siccus (Dried Bilberry fruit)*. EMA/HMPC/678995/2013, 29 September 2015. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Myrtilli fructus recens (Fresh Bilberry fruit)*. EMA/HMPC/375808/2014, 29 September 2015. - European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Myrtilli fructus siccus*. EMA/HMPC/555161/2013, 29 September 2015. - LiverTox: Clinical and Research Information on Drug-Induced Liver Injury, “Bilberry.” National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, updated 2019. NCBI Bookshelf. --- *Bilberry.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-16. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/bilberry Historical description, not medical advice.