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by Chris Kilham
The Healing Powers of Elderberry
An old Austrian saying, “Tip your hat to the elder,” expresses the respect with which Europeans have long regarded the elder tree, Sambucus nigra, and its dark purple berries. Elderberries have been incorporated in European folk medicine since antiquity for a plethora of maladies from arthritis and asthma to colds and constipation. In 400 BC Hippocrates referred to the elder tree as his “medicine chest.” Other distinguished classical healers including Theophrastus, Dioscorides and Galen also considered the elder and its purple berries one of nature’s greatest healing plants.
Intrigued by elderberry’s long history of medicinal use, and having heard about new science on the berries, I recently conducted a trip to Austria, Germany and Italy, to visit growers, processors and scientists who have devoted themselves to elder. What I found was a rapidly growing elderberry market and substantive research which solidly backs the reputation of this plant and its berries. Top elder experts and researchers took time from their busy schedules to explain recent discoveries which show that elderberry is both a nutritionally-rich fruit and a concentrated source of highly healthful phytochemicals.
A Booming Industry
Austria is the world’s primary elderberry producing country and its Haschberg variety of elder produces a high yield of sweet, richly purple berries. Haschberg elderberries are used in juices, jams, fruit yogurts and wines and demand is also growing for elderberry extracts for the nutraceutical field.
Austrian elderberry production is increasing rapidly due to strong market demand. This demand is fueled primarily by the extraordinary taste of elderberry, which is as rich as cherry, yet unlike any other fruit. At 8000 tons of cultivated elderberry per year, Austria’s commercial production is double that of 1995. The epicenter of the booming Austrian elderberry industry is the Beerenfrost Co-op in Thalhammerstrasse. The man at the helm of the rapidly moving elderberry industry is Kurt Kaufmann. A virtually tireless elderberry proponent, Kaufmann has organized 1000 Austrian growers into a tightly organized co-op, with rigid schedules for harvesting, trucking and cooling berries. Not content to merely organize the entire Austrian elder industry, Kurt Kaufmann also designed and built Beerenfrost, an immense non-profit berry freezing facility where elderberries are cooled immediately after harvest. He describes the tricky timing of harvesting and cooling: “In September, at harvest, the elderberries must be cooled immediately or they spoil. Here at Beerenfrost elderberries are chilled to minus 20 degrees Celsius in less than 24 hours.” I asked Kurt what tonnage of berries he can take in on one day. “We can handle about 600 tons per day, but last year one day we took in 1600 tons in 24 hours,” he said. I asked him if he sleeps. “Not during harvest,” he replies with the smile of a man used to performing great works.
The Elder Statesman of Elderberries
At the Paracelsus House nature cure center in Karlstein, Austria, Father Hermann Josef Weidinger and 37 assistants prepare herbal remedies for dozens of health conditions. The 82-year-old Austrian Catholic priest and herbal healer regards elderberry with the same reverence that Hippocrates did. Before he discusses their healing powers he serves tall glasses of imponderably dark purple elder juice. “This is the very best thing for your health,” he says with a kind and knowing smile. The juice is sensationally delicious and I wonder to myself why it isn’t yet vastly popular in the U.S.
Father Weidinger has published over a dozen books on natural therapies and dozens of herbal health formulas bear his imprimatur. “Elderberry cleanses the digestive system and promotes healthy elimination,” he adds. “This is most essential to good health.” Austria’s best known nature healer, Father Weidinger believes that elderberry protects the body from serious diseases. He also believes that elderberry enhances both the body and mind: “Elderberry reduces inflammation and relieves the body of impurities. In this manner it also balances the emotions.” Weidinger uses concentrated elderberry juice as a mainstay in his herbal cleansing and healing programs and claims that the juice has helped thousands. “I am convinced that elderberry juice helps to prevent many serious diseases, including cancer,” he declares.
Elderberry is more than a prized folk remedy of old herbalists. Modern research conducted in Europe shows that elderberries are potent sources of anthocyanins, powerful antioxidant pigments which boost immunity, maintain healthy tissue, promote cardiovascular health and reduce stress. Ongoing research in Germany and Austria is focusing on these purple antioxidant anthocyanins to determine what other health-imbuing powers they may possess, and how they work.
Potent Antioxidants
Oxidation is the process by which cells and tissue “rust,” due to exposure to certain reactive species of oxygen. Oxidation is a factor in numerous diseases including arthritis and other conditions involving the breakdown of tissue and it is one of the primary processes of aging. In Karlsruhe at Germany’s Bundesforschungsanstalt research center for food, scientists conduct studies on dietary agents that can reduce oxidation and protect cells. Research led by Dr. Gerhard Rechkemmer shows that purple anthocyanins found in elderberries possess approximately three times the antioxidant capacity of carotenoids. Per gram, purple elderberry anthocyanins exhibit more protective antioxidant activity than beta carotene, vitamin C or vitamin E. But Dr. Rechkemmer and his team of 30 scientists are bedeviled by the anthocyanins. “These compounds are hard to track as they are metabolized,” he says. “They disappear and their metabolic by-products are not yet known.”
The recent work conducted at Bundesforschungsanstalt supports previous research suggesting that anthocyanins protect cells from oxidative damage caused by numerous factors including environmental toxins and poor diet. Many researchers assume that the potent purple pigments in elderberries help to scavenge destructive free radicals and maintain healthy tissue. But Dr. Rechkemmer wants to know without a shadow of a doubt. “I anticipate more very good news to emerge from our anthocyanin research over the next few years,” he says. His investigations do show that elderberry anthocyanins enhance immune function by boosting the production of cytokines. These unique proteins act as messengers in the immune system to help regulate immune response, thus helping to defend the body against disease. When asked if he thinks that further berry research will reveal additional health benefits, Rechkemmer nods. “I believe so,” he says. “But the anthocyanins are extremely hard to track in blood plasma, so we do not know exactly what they are doing in the body. We must discover their mode of action and go beyond belief to certain knowledge.”
Heart Protection
At the scientific heart of the elderberry boom, Doctors Werner Pfannhauser and Michael Murkovic at Austria’s University of Graz have conducted research showing that elderberry extract reduces oxidation of LDL cholesterol and exhibits a beneficial antioxidant effect in the body. While cholesterol is an essential component manufactured in the liver, oxidation of LDL cholesterol is implicated as a major contributing factor to cardiovascular disease, especially heart attacks and strokes. The results with elderberry do not come as a surprise to the researchers at Graz. Previous research has shown that anthocyanins reduce adhesion of platelets to blood vessel walls, thus reducing the risk of atherosclerosis, hardening of the arteries. The cleaner the arteries, the more efficiently the heart works. In vitro studies show that anthocyanins from elderberry demonstrate even higher antioxidant activity than highly touted bilberry. “I am certain that elderberry is beneficial,” notes Murkovic. When I tell Dr. Murkovic that scientists in Germany have not been able to track anthocyanins in the body, he smiles. “We have.”
Stress Reduction
Of all emerging research on elderberry, none is more surprising than the apparent capacity of elderberry and its anthocyanin-rich extract appear to reduce stress. This wholly unexpected finding was discovered by Austrian endocrinologist Dr. Sepp Porta, who conducted stress studies using elderberry concentrate on a group of volunteers. “We only gave these people the elderberry for 10 days,” he notes with expansive hand gestures. “We put them through typical stress tests, all the usual physical challenges, and the results were so remarkable, I checked them over and over.” In the study, various bio-markers of stress, including glucose, magnesium and other plasma chemical levels, were analyzed. “What we found was that elderberry has this extraordinary effect for reducing stress,” he explained. Porta found that daily intake of elderberry extract greatly decreased susceptibility to stress and significantly shortened recovery time from physical exertion.
Dr. Porta’s research into the stress-reducing effects of elderberry has attracted strong interest on the part of the U.S. Air Force. In a novel collaboration, cadets on loan now work with Porta to conduct follow-up tests, crunch data and advance his findings. Their reasoning is that if elderberry is as potent a stress buster as it appears, it could be valuable to troops, especially jet pilots whose stress load is daunting.
How To Benefit From Elderberries?
As far as I can determine, the best way to enjoy the health benefits of elderberry is to follow the sage advice of Father Weidinger and drink a 10-ounce glass of the sweet, rich, purple juice every day. It tastes delicious, improves digestion and elimination and boosts energy. But elderberry juice isn’t so easy to find in the U.S. Thus I also recommend concentrated elderberry extract. High anthocyanin elderberry extracts (6 to 13 percent) are finding their way to health food store shelves. A daily dose of 250–500 milligrams of high anthocyanin elderberry extract will impart the benefits cited in the research above. Sometimes the simplest things offer the most value. Elderberries, regarded as superior healers since antiquity, have made the transition into modern times with their reputation and value deservedly intact.
Chris Kilham is a medicine hunter. His book Tales From The Medicine Trail is published by Rodale Press.
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