# Juneberry (Amelanchier canadensis) *Serviceberry, shadbush, Saskatoon; *Amelanchier canadensis* of Medicus, *Mespilus canadensis* of Linnaeus, *Pyrus Botryapium*, *Aronia Botryapium*; *Amelanchier laevis*, *Amelanchier alnifolia*; the Ojibwe *goz gag ’m n n*, thorny berry; the Potawatomi *bos kwa’kom n n** **Known today as.** The shadbushes of the rich upland woods, small trees or tall shrubs that open their white strap-petalled flowers in loose racemes as the leaves unfold, from the end of March in the South to the end of May in the North, and ripen in early summer a sweet edible fruit, red at first and dark purple with a bloom when ripe. *Amelanchier canadensis* ranges from Newfoundland to Florida and west to Minnesota, Nebraska, and Kansas, growing with the oaks, hickories, sugar maples, and birches. Kind: Plant > **Caution.** A food. Nothing read for this entry describes harm from the fruit. ## What was it used for? Food first. The Chippewa, Densmore says, called them Juneberries, found them abundantly in their country, and “considered them the simplest form of refreshment”; the Flambeau and Pillager Ojibwe dried them for winter, “the Indians often preferring them to blueberries,” and the Forest Potawatomi relished them fresh and dried or canned them. The bark was medicine: the Pillager Ojibwe made a tea of it for the expectant mother, and the Forest Potawatomi a tonic of the root bark; Smith could find no record of any medicinal use by white men. Sargent knew the fruit as sweet and edible and the hard satiny wood as the handle of tools. ## What does modern science say? The Saskatoon berry, the western species, has been examined as a crop: forty-eight bioactive compounds in four genotypes grown in Poland, among them four anthocyanins, nine phenolic acids, flavonols, flavan-3-ols, carotenoids, and tocopherols, with the antioxidant capacity varying by clone. In a 2008 study of four berries of the traditional Native American diet, including this one and the chokecherry, the carotenoids were potent inhibitors of aldose reductase, the enzyme of diabetic microvascular damage, and the phenolics lowered glucose and the expression of inflammatory genes in the laboratory assays. ## Pharmacognosy and toxicology - **anthocyanins**: four in the Saskatoon berry, with nine phenolic acids, nine flavonols, and seven flavan-3-ols - **carotenoids**: seven, with tocopherols; the carotenoids of the Native diet berries inhibited aldose reductase **Mechanism.** In laboratory assays the nonpolar fraction of these berries inhibited aldose reductase, the enzyme of diabetic microvascular damage, and the phenolics lowered glucose and the expression of IL-1 and COX-2. **Dose.** A fruit, fresh or dried; a tea of the bark for the expectant mother, by the Pillager Ojibwe. **Standing.** A fruit of the Native diet with a rich phytochemistry and no trial. ## What lore surrounds it? The shad bush flowers when the shad run and the Juneberry ripens in June; the service berry, by one account or another, bloomed when the ground thawed enough for burials and the services could be held, though no source read for this entry says so, and the name is left to the reader. What Densmore heard was a proverb and a song: take some Juneberries with you. ## What did the older authorities say? **Frances Densmore.** “These are called ‘Juneberries’ by the Chippewa and are found abundantly in their country. They are considered the simplest form of refreshment. ‘Take some Juneberries with you,’ is a common saying among the Chippewa. A certain song contains the words ‘Juneberries I would take to eat on my journey if I were a son-in-law.’” **Huron H. Smith.** The Flambeau Ojibwe knew the smooth Juneberry only as a food, “although some tribes use the bark as a medicine. Juneberries were also dried for winter use, the Indians often preferring them to blueberries.” The Pillager Ojibwe said the bark was to make a tea for the expectant mother, and the Forest Potawatomi used the root bark for a tonic. “There is no record of its medicinal use by white men.” **Charles Sprague Sargent.** A tree sometimes forty to fifty feet high; the flowers “appear from the end of March at the south to the end of May at the north when the leaves are grown to nearly one third of their size”; the fruit, which ripens in early summer, is sweet and edible, dark purple with a slight glaucous bloom. The wood is heavy, exceedingly hard, and satiny, occasionally used for the handles of tools; and American pomologists had lately paid some attention to the cultivation and improvement of the juicier swamp form. ## Sources - Densmore, F. (1928). *Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians*, Forty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, “Amelanchier canadensis. Shadbush,” under foods. Internet Archive, usesofplantsbych00dens. - Smith, H. H. (1932). *Ethnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians*, Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 4(3), “Smooth Juneberry,” under medicines and foods. Project Gutenberg, 49527. - Smith, H. H. (1933). *Ethnobotany of the Forest Potawatomi Indians*, Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 7(1), “Juneberry.” Internet Archive, ethnobotany-of-the-forest-potawatomi-indians-by-huron-h.-smith-1933. - Sargent, C. S. (1892). *The Silva of North America*, vol. 4, “Amelanchier Canadensis. Shad Bush. Service Berry,” pp. 125–129 and Plates CXCIII–CXCV. Internet Archive, mobot31753000329240. - Lachowicz, S., Oszmia ski, J., & Pluta, S. (2017). The composition of bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of Saskatoon berry (*Amelanchier alnifolia* Nutt.) genotypes grown in central Poland. *Food Chemistry* 235: 234–243. doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2017.05.050 - Burns Kraft, T. F., et al. (2008). Phytochemical composition and metabolic performance-enhancing activity of dietary berries traditionally used by Native North Americans. *Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry* 56: 654–660. doi:10.1021/jf071999d --- *Juneberry.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-04. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/juneberry Historical description, not medical advice.