# Cherry stalks

*Cherry stems; the fruit stalks of the sweet cherry, *Prunus avium* of Linnaeus, and the sour cherry, *Prunus cerasus*; the Greek *kerasia* of Dioscorides*

**Known today as.** The dried fruit stalks of the sweet and sour cherries. Grieve gives their marks as “stalks 1 3/4 inch long, very thin and enlarged at one end,” and says those of all species were used, gathered in Britain, at Clermont-Ferrand in France, and elsewhere on the Continent.

Kind: Plant

> **Caution.** Not for anyone under eighteen, for want of data, nor where a reduced fluid intake is advised. Fever, painful urination, spasms, or blood in the urine call for a doctor.

## What was it used for?

An astringent tea. Grieve gives the stalks, half an ounce to a pint of water, in infusion or decoction, for bronchial complaints, anaemia, and looseness of the bowels. Of the tree, Culpeper made the dried tart cherries binding to the belly and provoking urine, and the gum, dissolved in wine, “good for a cold, cough, and hoarseness of the throat” and to break and expel the stone.

## What does modern science say?

The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee accepts the stalks as a traditional herbal medicine, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for the relief of symptoms of minor urinary complaints, together with the general advice to drink enough fluid to increase the amount of urine (monograph of 2024). Its assessment report finds polyphenols and tannins, organic acids chiefly malic, citric, oxalic, and shikimic, and flavonoids.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **tannins**: with polyphenols
- **malic acid**: chief of the organic acids, with citric, oxalic, and shikimic
- **flavonoids**: 

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

**Standing.** European Union herbal monograph (2024): traditional use, “exclusively based upon long-standing use,” for symptoms of minor urinary complaints.

## What lore surrounds it?

The old writers had little to say of the stalk. Culpeper’s and Dioscorides’ claims are for the fruit and the gum of the tree; the European monograph is for the stalks alone.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Dioscorides.** Cherries eaten fresh are good for the bowels, and dried they stop discharges; the gum of the cherry tree, taken with diluted wine, heals an old cough, gives a good colour, sharp sight, and appetite, and in wine helps those troubled with stones.

**Nicholas Culpeper.** “It is a tree of *Venus*.” “Cherries, as they are of different tastes, so they are of different qualities”: the sweet pass quickly through and nourish little, the sour please a hot stomach and procure appetite.

## Sources

- Grieve, M. *A Modern Herbal*, “Cherry Stalks.” As published on botanical.com.
- Culpeper, N. *The Complete Herbal*, “The Cherry-Tree.” Project Gutenberg, 49513.
- Dioscorides. *De materia medica*, 1-157, in the modern English version of T. A. Osbaldeston and R. P. A. Wood (Johannesburg: Ibidis, 2000), after Goodyer’s translation of 1655. Internet Archive.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Prunus avium peduncle (Cherry stalks)*. EMA/HMPC/379866/2023, 20 November 2024.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Prunus avium peduncle*. EMA/HMPC/379865/2023, 20 November 2024.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *European Union herbal monograph on Prunus avium peduncle (Cherry stalks)*. EMA/HMPC/379866/2023, 20 November 2024.
- European Medicines Agency, Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products. *Assessment report on Prunus avium peduncle*. EMA/HMPC/379865/2023, 20 November 2024.

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

Historical description, not medical advice.