# Blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum)

*Black currant, quinsy berries, squinancy berries; *Ribes nigrum* of Linnaeus; in pharmacy *Ribis nigri folium*, the leaf*

**Known today as.** *Ribes nigrum*, a shrub of damp woods which Grieve considered truly native in England only in Yorkshire and the Lake District, carried elsewhere by birds, and “easily distinguished at all seasons by the strong perfume of its buds and leaves.” Its leaves are dotted underneath. Fruit, leaves, bark, and roots were all used; modern herbal medicine keeps the leaf.

Kind: Plant

> **Caution.** The leaf is not for anyone under eighteen, for want of data, nor where a reduced fluid intake is recommended, as in severe heart or kidney disease. Joint pain with swelling, redness, or fever should be examined by a doctor, as should fever, painful urination, spasms, or blood in the urine.

## What was it used for?

For sore throats the juice boiled down with sugar to a ‘rob’ was given for inflammatory sore throats and made into lozenges, and Grieve recommends a spoonful of the jelly in boiling water, ‘Black Currant Tea,’ drunk hot several times a day. The raw juice she calls diuretic and diaphoretic, “an excellent beverage in febrile diseases”; the infusion of the leaves “is cleansing and diuretic,” and a decoction of the bark was used for calculus, dropsy, and piles.

## What does modern science say?

The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee accepts the leaf as a traditional herbal medicine, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for two purposes: the relief of minor pain in the joints, and to increase the amount of urine and so flush the urinary tract, as an adjuvant in minor urinary complaints (monograph of 2017). Its assessment report lists flavonoid glycosides of kaempferol, quercetin, and myricetin, hydroxycinnamic acids, and prodelphinidins, which, it says, “may be responsible for the anti-inflammatory properties.” The fruit has been tested for other purposes: a 2020 meta-analysis of New Zealand blackcurrant found “a small, but significant, effect on sport performance, with no known detrimental side effects.”

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **kaempferol**: among the flavonoid glycosides, with quercetin and myricetin
- **quercetin**: 
- **myricetin**: 
- **prodelphinidins**: which, the assessment report says, “may be responsible for the anti-inflammatory properties”

**Mechanism.** Not established in the sources read for this entry.

**Standing.** European Union herbal monograph (2017): traditional use, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for minor joint pain and to flush the urinary tract in minor urinary complaints.

## What lore surrounds it?

Grieve records the shrub as “the only instance of a process by which double flowers may become single, by changing petals into stamina.” The berries were put into brandy like black cherries; the Russians made wine of them, and in Siberia a drink of the young leaves made “common spirits resemble brandy.” An infusion of the leaves, she says, is like green tea; goats eat the leaves, and bears especially like the berries.

## What did the older authorities say?

**John Gerard, as Grieve quotes him.** The fruit was not at first as popular as the red and white currants, for Gerard describes it as “of a stinking and somewhat loathing savour.”

## Sources

- Grieve, M. *A Modern Herbal*, “Currant, Black.” As published on botanical.com.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Ribis nigri folium (Blackcurrant Leaf)*. EMA/HMPC/745353/2016, 19 September 2017.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Ribis nigri folium*. EMA/HMPC/745347/2016, 19 September 2017.
- Braakhuis AJ, et al. (2020). The effect of New Zealand blackcurrant on sport performance and related biomarkers: a systematic review and meta-analysis. *Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition*. PMID 32460873.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Ribis nigri folium (Blackcurrant Leaf)*. EMA/HMPC/745353/2016, 19 September 2017.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Ribis nigri folium*. EMA/HMPC/745347/2016, 19 September 2017.

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*Blackcurrant.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-16. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/blackcurrant

Historical description, not medical advice.