Elderberry Syrup: Recipe and Dose by Age
Elderberry syrup is a decoction of the ripe berries of Elder, Sambucus nigra, reduced by half and preserved with an equal volume of honey. The working recipe is 100 grams of dried berries, or 200 grams of fresh, to one litre of water, simmered forty minutes, pressed, and mixed while still warm with an equal measure of honey. The adult dose at the onset of a cold or influenza is one tablespoon, 15 millilitres, three or four times a day, and one teaspoon to a tablespoon daily through the winter as a preventive; a child over one year takes one teaspoon on the same schedule. The berries are always cooked, because the raw and unripe fruit, the seeds, the leaves, and the bark contain cyanogenic glycosides and lectins that bring on nausea and vomiting, and cooking destroys them.
The plant
The Elder of the European herbals is Sambucus nigra; the American Elder, Sambucus canadensis, now usually treated as a subspecies of it, is used the same way. The berry is cooling and moistening, sour and sweet, and its actions are antiviral, diaphoretic, mildly laxative, and immune-stimulating. The flower is the other medicinal part, cooling and drying, a diaphoretic that opens the pores in a fever, and it is the part the German Commission E approves, for colds, as an infusion of the dried flowers at 10 to 15 grams a day. The berry's use against influenza is the folk use of northern Europe made general in the late twentieth century, and it is now the plant's principal use.
Red Elder, Sambucus racemosa, and Dwarf Elder, Sambucus ebulus, are not used for syrup; the dwarf elder in particular is purgative and its berries are not eaten. The black elder is known by its flat-topped creamy umbels in June and its drooping clusters of purple-black berries in September, borne on a shrub with pithy stems and pinnate leaves. Culpeper gives the tree to Venus.
The recipe
- Put 100 grams of dried berries, or 200 of fresh stripped from the stalk, into a pan with one litre of cold water. A thumb of fresh Ginger, Zingiber officinale, sliced, a stick of Cinnamon, Cinnamomum verum, and three or four Cloves, Syzygium aromaticum, are the usual warming additions for a cold, and are left out for a child who dislikes them.
- Bring to the boil and simmer uncovered for forty to forty-five minutes, until the liquid has reduced by about half.
- Mash the berries in the pan with the back of a spoon, then strain through muslin and press.
- Let the liquid cool until it is warm to the hand, not hot, and stir in honey equal to its volume: about 500 millilitres of honey to 500 of decoction. Heat destroys what the honey brings, so it is never boiled in.
- Bottle in sterilised glass, label with the date, and keep in the refrigerator.
Made with honey at 1:1 the syrup keeps two to three months refrigerated. Made with sugar at 2:1, two parts sugar to one of decoction, it keeps six months or more, and a fifth part of brandy added to the finished syrup extends either. A layer of mould on the surface or a fermenting fizz means the batch is discarded. Honey is never given to a child under one year, for its risk of infant botulism, and the syrup for an infant is made with sugar or with a glycerite of the berries instead.
Dose
| Person | At the onset of illness | As a winter preventive |
|---|---|---|
| Adult | 1 tablespoon, 15 ml, three or four times daily | 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon daily |
| Child over twelve | as an adult | as an adult |
| Child six to twelve | 2 teaspoons, 10 ml, three or four times daily | 1 to 2 teaspoons daily |
| Child one to six | 1 teaspoon, 5 ml, three times daily | half to 1 teaspoon daily |
| Under one year | not given with honey; a sugar syrup at half a teaspoon | not given |
The syrup is begun at the first sign of a cold and continued for three to five days; the herbals hold that its value is greatest early. It is a mild laxative in quantity, and a person who takes a great deal of it loosens the bowel. The tradition knows of no drug interaction of consequence for the berry; as an immune stimulant the older texts withhold it, with echinacea, from a person on an immunosuppressant drug, and the modern monographs do not confirm the concern.
The raw berry
The unripe and raw berries, and the leaves, stems, and bark, contain sambunigrin, a cyanogenic glycoside, and lectins, and a person who eats a bowl of raw berries or drinks a juice pressed cold from them is sick within hours. Cooking for a quarter of an hour or more removes the problem, and cooked elderberries have been eaten as food for as long as there have been herbals. The dried berries sold for syrup are safe once decocted; they are not eaten dry.
Not medical advice.