# Jelly ear (Auricularia auricula-judae)

**Auricularia auricula-judae*; Judas’s ear, wood ear*

**Known today as.** A brown, rubbery, ear-shaped fungus, chiefly on elder.

Kind: Fungus

## What was it used for?

Seventeenth-century English herbalists boiled it in milk against sore throats; a related wood ear is a common food in East Asia.

## What does modern science say?

Its polysaccharides delay clotting and platelet aggregation in laboratory tests.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **polysaccharides**: including beta-glucans
- **an anticoagulant polysaccharide**: 

**Mechanism.** A food in East Asia and a sore-throat remedy in old England. In 1980 Hammerschmidt reported, as “Szechwan purpura,” an Oriental tonic food that briefly stopped the platelets from clumping and caused a mild bleeding tendency; polysaccharides of *Auricularia* delay clotting and platelet aggregation in laboratory tests.

## What lore surrounds it?

Legend says Judas hanged himself on an elder tree, and the ears that grow on its branches are his.

## Sources

- Grieve, M. (1931). *A Modern Herbal*.
- Culpeper, N. (1653). *Pharmacopoeia Londinensis: or the London Dispensatory*. London: Peter Cole. Text Creation Partnership edition A35381.
- Liu, M., et al. (2025). Sustainable cultivation and functional bioactive compounds of *Auricularia* mushrooms: advances, challenges, and future prospects. *Biology (Basel)* 14: 1555.
- Hammerschmidt, D. E. (1980). “Szechwan purpura.” *New England Journal of Medicine* 302.

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*Jelly ear.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-03. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/jelly-ear

Historical description, not medical advice.