Elder
Sambucus
- Known today as
- Sambucus nigra: flowers, berries, bark, and leaves.
- Kind
- Plant, in 2 older authorities
- Constituents
- sambunigrin, anthocyanins
- Earliest authority here
- Martin Blochwich
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search
Caution. Raw berries, leaves, and bark are poisonous; cooked flowers and berries are safe.
Elder: what was it used for?
Purging, sweating, and cooling: the flowers for fevers, the berries in rob and wine, the bark as a strong purge.
Elder: how is it taken as a tea?
Elder flower tea, the dried flowers infused: gently laxative, said to promote expectoration in pleurisy and held excellent for inducing free perspiration. The bark, an ounce to a pint, is a strong purgative and in large doses an emetic.
All the herbal teas of the database. Historical directions, not medical advice.
Elder: what does modern science say?
Elderflower is a mild diaphoretic; the raw berries, leaves, and bark contain cyanide-releasing glycosides and cause vomiting.
Elder: is it poisonous?
Yes, in some form or dose. Raw berries, leaves, and bark are poisonous; cooked flowers and berries are safe. Historical description, not medical advice; in a poisoning, call a poison centre.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- sambunigrin ChEMBLa cyanogenic glycoside in leaves, bark, and unripe berries
- anthocyaninsin the ripe berry
- Mechanism
- The cyanogenic glycosides release cyanide when the raw plant is crushed; cooking destroys them. In 1983 eleven people in California were poisoned by juice pressed from raw berries, leaves, and branches.
- Toxic dose
- Raw berries and leaves in quantity; the cooked berry is a food.
- Standing
- Elderflower is in the European monographs for colds; an elderberry extract shortened influenza in two small trials.
- Centers for Disease Control (1984). “Poisoning from elderberry juice, California.” MMWR 33. Not indexed
- Zakay-Rones, Z., et al. (2004). “Randomized study of the efficacy and safety of oral elderberry extract in the treatment of influenza.” Journal of International Medical Research 32. Verified against its record · doi:10.1177/147323000403200205
The abstract of each source, beneath its citation. For Club members. About the Club or sign in.
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.
Elder: what lore surrounds it?
In Danish lore the Elder Mother dwells in the tree, and one must ask her leave before cutting it. See also Jelly ear.
Elder: what did the older authorities say?
- Martin Blochwich
- Wrote an entire book on the elder, the Anatomia Sambuci (1631), englished as The Anatomie of the Elder.
- John Evelyn
- Praised it in Sylva as a remedy for almost every ill a countryman could suffer.
Sources
- Blochwich, M. (1631). Anatomia Sambuci. Book, not indexed
- Evelyn, J. (1664). Sylva. Verified against its record · doi:10.5962/bhl.title.33688
- Grieve, M. A Modern Herbal, “Elder.” As published on botanical.com.
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
- 5 cited: 2 verified against its record, 1 book, not indexed, 1 not indexed, 1 not yet checked. 1 with the abstract on file.
- 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.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 25, 2026
- Chicago
“Elder.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified September 25, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/elder.
- MLA
“Elder.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 25 Sept. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/elder. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Elder. (2026, September 25). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/elder
Club members keep entries on a shelf with private notes, print the plates as cards, and receive an entry by email each week. Create a free account before January 1, 2027 and all of it is yours for good. About the Club
See Also
Sharing anthocyanins
Drawing on the same sources: Grieve
Nearby in the alphabet
Earthworm (washed in wine, dried, powdered, or boiled in oil) · Elf-shot (Prehistoric flint arrowheads turned up in the fields) · Earth of the Holy Land · Endive (the salad plant) · Eagle-stone (A hollow nodule of iron oxide with a loose stone rattling inside) · Epiphany chalk
Historical description, not medical advice.