# Ground cherry (Physalis) *Winter cherry, strawberry tomato, Cape gooseberry, goldenberry, Poha; yellow henbane; *Alkekengi* of the old shops; *Judenkirsche* and *Schlutte* in German; *Physalis alkekengi*, *Physalis viscosa*, *Physalis peruviana** **Known today as.** *Physalis*, the ground cherries: nightshades whose five-cleft calyx swells after the flower falls into a papery bladder, the Greek *phusa*, that encloses a round berry, red in the European winter cherry and yellow or orange in the American ground cherry. Kind: Plant > **Caution.** The fruit is eaten, but a strong dose of the leaves and stems causes heaviness and constipation; the winter cherry’s fruit extract harmed zebrafish embryos; and it is among the plants most often reported to a German poison centre, nearly always without symptoms. ## What was it used for? The berries, slightly acid and bitter, as a diuretic and aperient for gravel, suppression of urine, and gout, six to twelve berries or half an ounce of the juice; in America the juice of the ground cherry, one or two fluid ounces, for gravel, difficult urination, and fevers with scanty urine; the leaves boiled for poultices; and the bitter principle physalin against intermittent fever. ## What does modern science say? The genus is a chemist’s, for its withanolides and physalins. From the goldenberry, *Physalis peruviana*, a 2025 study isolated a new withanolide, physaperuvin K, from the edible fruit; it inhibited NF- B signalling in cells at 10 nanomolar without killing them. The fruit is a source of fibre, ascorbic acid, and potassium, and its extract checked colorectal and lung cancer cells in the dish. The winter cherry is not harmless: its fruit extract was more toxic than its calyx to zebrafish embryos, and in Germany it was among the fruit plants most often reported to the Erfurt poison centre over ten years, though poisoning by fruit plants there was rare and 82 percent of exposures were without symptoms. ## Pharmacognosy and toxicology - **physalin**: the bitter principle, obtained from the winter cherry by Dessaignes and Chautard in 1852; five physalin derivatives were found in the goldenberry fruit - **withanolides**: physaperuvin K from the edible goldenberry fruit, and seven more from the aerial parts, among them the chlorinated physalolactone - **citric acid**: with sugar in the fruit - **glycidyl stearate**: the key cardiotoxic component of the winter cherry’s fruit extract in the zebrafish study **Mechanism.** The goldenberry’s withanolides inhibited NF- B activity at 10 to 60 nanomolar and the production of nitric oxide in activated macrophages at low micromolar concentrations, without overt cytotoxicity. The toxicity of the winter cherry’s fruit extract to zebrafish embryos lay in a 5 to 10 kilodalton fraction that was not polysaccharide, and removing it made the extract safer. **Dose.** Six to twelve berries, or half an ounce of the expressed juice, by Grieve; one or two fluid ounces of the juice of the American ground cherry, by King’s. **Standing.** Food more than medicine: a 2025 analysis of the goldenberry’s nutrients and phytochemicals supports its name of “superfruit,” while the winter cherry’s toxicological profile, the zebrafish study says, “has not been comprehensively assessed.” ## What lore surrounds it? The bladder names the plant: Greek *phusa*, for the calyx that swells into a lantern round the fruit, which Thomé’s *Flora* paints *mennigrot*, the red of red lead, calyx and berry alike. The Germans call it *Judenkirsche*, the Jews’ cherry, and *Schlutte*. Ray’s gouty patient took eight berries at every change of the moon; Culpeper had the berries bruised into the ale as it was tunned; the yellow colouring of the skin and calyx was once used for butter; and a preparation called Lithal, an extract of the berries with a lithium salt, was sold. The Dioscorides whom Millspaugh and Grieve invoke is known here only through them. ## What did the older authorities say? **Nicholas Culpeper.** Winter-cherries are “a plant of Venus,” not native to England but cherished in gardens for their virtues: the leaves cooling, for inflammations; the berries opening, provoking urine plentifully when it is stopped or hot and painful, and expelling the stone and gravel of the reins, kidneys, and bladder. Three or four handfuls of the bruised berries put into as many gallons of new beer or ale make a drink which, “taken daily, has been found to do much good to many, both to ease the pains, and expel urine and the stone, and to cause the stone not to engender.” **C. S. Rafinesque.** Holds all the species equal to *Solanum virginicum*, “but berries acid bitterish, liked by children, good diuretic and sedative.” **Charles F. Millspaugh.** Notes among the nightshades that many species of *Physalis* are valuable, and that the winter cherry “has been considered an excellent diuretic from the days of Dioscorides; Ray considered it also anti-podagric.” **King’s American Dispensatory.** Gives the berries of *Physalis viscosa*, the ground cherry or yellow henbane of dry fields and roadsides, as tonic, laxative, and diuretic, said also to be sedative, their juice reputed very beneficial in gravel and difficult urination, one or two fluid ounces; and reports that Dessaignes and Chautard in 1852 obtained from the European winter cherry its bitter principle, physalin, “which has been employed with success in intermittent fever.” **Mrs. M. Grieve.** Records that in Germany, Spain, and Switzerland the berries are eaten freely; that Ray told of a gouty patient who kept off the disorder by taking eight berries at each change of the moon, and that Dioscorides claimed they would cure epilepsy; that country people use them for their beasts and for themselves, especially after scarlet fever; and that the plant sold in pots as winter cherry is *Solanum pseudo-capsicum*, no *Physalis* at all. ## Sources - Culpeper, N. *The Complete Herbal*, “Winter-Cherries.” Project Gutenberg, 49513. - Rafinesque, C. S. (1828). *Medical Flora, or Manual of the Medical Botany of the United States of North America*, vol. 2, “Physalis,” p. 250. Internet Archive, b21468710_0002. - Millspaugh, C. F. (1887). *American Medicinal Plants*, vol. 2, the note on the Solanaceae at no. 125. Internet Archive, americanmedicina02mill_0. - Felter, H. W., & Lloyd, J. U. (1898). *King’s American Dispensatory*, “Physalis.—Ground Cherry.” As transcribed at Henriette’s Herbal Homepage, henriettes-herb.com. - Grieve, M. *A Modern Herbal*, “Cherry, Winter.” As published on botanical.com. - Thomé, O. W. (1889). *Flora von Deutschland, österreich und der Schweiz*, Bd. 4, “Gattung 639: Physalis,” and Tafel 489. Internet Archive, profdrthomesflor41889thom. - Sang-Ngern, M., et al. (2025). Biologically active withanolides from *Physalis peruviana*. *Pharmaceutical Biology* 63: 334–343. doi:10.1080/13880209.2025.2488136 - A ibarro-Ortega, M., et al. (2025). Nutrients, phytochemicals, and in vitro biological activities of goldenberry (*Physalis peruviana* L.) fruit and calyx. *Plants* 14: 327. doi:10.3390/plants14030327 - Zhou, Z., et al. (2026). Acute developmental toxicity and cardiotoxicity of *Physalis alkekengi* L. fruit and calyx extracts based on zebrafish (*Danio rerio*) model. *Journal of Ethnopharmacology* 364: 121534. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2026.121534 - Wendt, S., Prasa, D., Lübbert, C., Begemann, K., & Franke, H. (2023). Exposures to fruit plants in Germany from 2010–2019: analysis of the Erfurt joint poison information center database. *Bundesgesundheitsblatt* 66: 1423–1433. doi:10.1007/s00103-023-03780-7 --- *Ground cherry.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-03. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/ground-cherry Historical description, not medical advice.