Elderberries, black, raw (organic?)

The black elderberry ( Sambucus nigra ), also known as holder or holler, is widespread in Central Europe. Black elderberries, known in northern Germany as lilac berries, have valuable ingredients. The seeds are slightly poisonous when eaten raw, similar to thered elderberry ( Sambucus racemosa ).

Use in the kitchen:

Elderberries are most often processed into juice, jelly, pudding, puree or used as an ingredient in red fruit compote. Mixed with blackberries or plums, elderberry jam also tastes excellent. As juice, the berries are a little tart and hardly sweet. Elderberry juice is very low in acid but intensely fruity and aromatic. Mixed with apple juice or other fruit juices, the juice takes on a special flavor.

The berries give off a beautiful purple color when baking fruit casseroles, fruit cakes or fruit slices. Some people use black elderberries to make a fruit soup, and in Austria the dessert Hollerkoch is well known. Black elderberries are also used to make a variety of alcoholic drinks such as wine, brandy, liqueur, etc.

Ripe berries are picked from the tree with the stem. Before using, the berries must be washed well while still on the umbel, dried or drained a little, and then scraped off the stems with a fork. ¹

Raw elderberries should not be mixed or pureed, as the toxins contained in the seeds can cause temporary discomfort (stomach ache, headache). You can read more about this in the Dangers - Intolerances - Side Effects chapter below. There you will also find details about the recommended cooking time for preparing elderberry juice and similar products (5-10 minutes).

If you collect elderflowers, you should never wash them before using them, as they will otherwise lose their aroma. Simply shake off insects. Elderflower lemonade (made from elderflower syrup) or elderflower sparkling wine (made from the flowers) are very well-known aromatic drinks. To make the syrup, the flowers and lemons are left in a sugar solution for a few days and then filtered. Elderflower pancakes are also made from the flowers of the elderberry bush. To do this, hold the flower bushes by the stem and dip them in pancake batter. After baking, serve them dusted with icing sugar. Or you can sprinkle the fresh elderflowers over salads or use them to garnish desserts.

Vegan recipe for elderberry compote:

Ingredients: 250 g elderberries, 500 ml water, 80 g raw sugar, 1 teaspoon cornstarch, 1 tablespoon lemon juice .

Preparation: Remove the stems from the washed, drained elderberry and mix the organic berries well with the remaining ingredients. Bring the mixture to the boil in a saucepan while stirring and let it simmer for about 5 minutes over a low heat. You can then serve the compote or fill it into sterile jars. If you cook a cinnamon stick or a few cloves with it, the dish will have a fine, warming aroma. Remove the spices before serving or preserving.

Tea preparations with black elderberry:

In addition to the berries of the black elderberry, flowers and leaves are also used for tea, mainly to treat colds. For one cup, about 1 teaspoon of dried elderflowers or berries (fresh berries are also possible) is enough, which you pour boiling water over and leave to steep covered for 5-10 minutes. This tea supports the immune system in the case of colds, facilitates sweating and thus detoxification through the skin. The flower tea can also be used as an inhalant to relieve coughs, colds and sinus infections.

The leaves of the elderberry bush are said to have a blood-cleansing effect. To make a tea, take a few fresh leaves, chop them up and pour boiling water over them.

Vegan recipes with elderberries can be found under the note: " Recipes that have the most of this ingredient ".

Shopping - where to buy?

You will hardly find fresh elderberries in supermarket chains such as Coop, Migros, Denner, Volg, Spar, Aldi, Lidl, Rewe, Edeka, Hofer etc. Some weekly or farmers' markets offer elderberries, or you can collect them yourself in the wild. Dried, frozen or freeze-dried berries can be found in some gourmet shops or online shops. Health food stores or organic shops usually also offer elderberry juice, syrup or fruit powder. Since conventionally grown elderberries on plantations require a high level of pesticide application (May - September, up to 6 times) ², we strongly recommend buying organic products. Even when collecting wild (see below), make sure that there is no risk of drift or pollutants from adjacent (conventional) fields, roads or railway embankments.

Found in the wild - Season:

Black elderberries can be found growing wild at forest and roadsides, in sunny forest clearings, on wasteland, in hedges, on old houses or stone walls up to 1500 m above sea level. When are black elderberries ripe? Depending on the weather, the harvest period extends from September to October (season). The berries should be picked with the stem, and only when all the fruits are blue-black in color.

Storage:

Elderberries will last for three to four days on the stems at room temperature. The clusters can be stored flat in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. It is important that no berries are damaged, as this encourages the formation of mold. The berries that have been removed from the stems can also be frozen very well.

Ingredients - nutritional value - calories:

Black elderberry berries have 73 kcal/100g. This energy content is mainly due to carbohydrates (18%). Fat (0.5%) and protein (0.6%) are barely present. ³

Elderberry has 36 mg of water-soluble vitamin C per 100 g. This proportion is not particularly high. There are berries with a much higher proportion of the antioxidant: red currants (41 mg), aronia berries (81 mg) or sea buckthorn berries (450 mg/100g). In addition, with elderberry, a large part of the heat-sensitive vitamin is lost through the necessary heating process. ³

Another water-soluble vitamin, pyridoxine (vitamin B₆ ), is contained in elderberry at 0.23 mg/100g. This vitamin is essential for protein metabolism and is found mainly in nuts ( hazelnuts : 0.56 mg), whole grains ( corn : 0.62), legumes ( chickpeas : 0.54 mg) and less in vegetables ( kale : 0.27 mg) and fruit ( bananas : 0.37 mg). ³

Potassium is well represented in black elderberries with 280 mg/100g for fruit. This essential macronutrient regulates cell growth and is important for normal blood pressure. Very good sources of potassium are herbs such as dried parsley (2680 mg), legumes such as white beans (1795 mg) or nuts such as almonds (730 mg). ³

Of the macro-minerals, elderberry also contains phosphorus . The amount of 39 mg/100g is not too significant, but the daily requirement of around 700 mg ⁴ can easily be covered with a natural and varied diet. Phosphorus is important for our bones, teeth and cell membranes. Chia seeds contain a lot of phosphorus at 860 mg/100g, as do linseed (640 mg) and amaranth (560 mg).

Black elderberry also contains traces of iron, thiamine (vitamin B₁ ) and calcium .

The complete ingredients of black elderberries , the coverage of the daily requirement and comparison values with other ingredients can be found in our nutrient tables. In the article Nutrients explained you will get a detailed insight into the topic.

Ratio of omega-6 (LA) to omega-3 fatty acids (ALA) in berries:

Berries and wild berries usually have a very good ratio of LA (linoleic acid) to ALA (alpha-linolenic acid) . In general, berries have a low fat content and the amounts of omega-3 and omega-6 are accordingly low. In relation to the total fat content, however, the polyunsaturated fatty acids make up a high proportion.

The body uses alpha-linolenic acid to produce other omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA), which have an anti-inflammatory effect, while linoleic acid is used to produce arachidonic acid, which has an inflammatory effect. The good ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is another reason why the berries are considered a very healthy food.

Information on individual values of ALA and LA (source: USDA, Önwt, Debinet):

Health aspects - effects:

What is elderberry good for? The berries are said to have an antioxidant and antiviral effect due to their anthocyanins. ^5,6 The components contained in elderberries such as polyphenols, flavonols, phenolic acids and proanthocyanidins as well as terpenes and lectins can have a strong influence on the course of disease processes by counteracting oxidative stress. In addition, the ingredients have positive effects on blood pressure, they lower blood sugar, stimulate the immune system, have antitumor potential, increase the activity of antioxidant enzymes in the blood plasma and lower uric acid levels. ⁷

The effectiveness of regular intake of elderberry extract in infections with flu viruses can also be confirmed by another study from Israel. ⁸

Dangers - Intolerances - Side effects:

What is poisonous about elderberry? All parts of the elderberry plant, i.e. unripe raw berries, fresh leaves, bark and roots contain cyanogenic glycosides (or: glycosides), ^6,21 namely sambunigrin, prunasin, holacalin and zierin. ²² Ripe raw berries contain so little of them that they are not usually named.

Can you eat elderberries raw? Ripe elderberries contain only small amounts of cyanogenic glycosides. A scientific study found that the ripe fruit contains 0.06 mg of cyanogenic glycosides per gram of dry matter - which corresponds to 0.0054 mg of hydrogen cyanide equivalents per gram. This means that each ripe berry (with a dry weight of around 20 mg ²⁵ ) contains 0.0001 mg of hydrogen cyanide equivalents. ^23,24 Up to 0.02 mg of hydrogen cyanide equivalents per kg of body weight are considered safe to eat. ²⁶ That would be more than 10,000 berries for a person weighing 54 kg. In addition, the human body can break down hydrogen cyanide equivalents to a certain extent. ²⁷ Therefore, when preparing the berries, care should be taken to use only ripe berries and not to incorporate any other parts of the plant. You should also not puree the berries, as the toxins in the chopped seeds can escape and cause headaches or stomach aches. Whole seeds, on the other hand, pass through our digestive system without this.

However, after consuming large quantities of raw berries, even ripe fruit can cause diarrhea or stomach problems, especially in children. This is why the Poison Information Center at the Georg August University of Göttingen, among others, warns against consuming raw elderberries in general. ²⁸ In its leaflet " Poisonous Garden and Wild Plants, " Toxinfo Suisse classifies all types of elderberry ( Sambucus sp.) as plants that are unsuitable for children in gardens and on children's playgrounds, pointing out that the plants rarely lead to serious poisoning, but should nevertheless not be grown in the family garden or on children's playgrounds. ²⁹

When cyanogenic glycosides are consumed, the ß-glucosidase present in the intestine comes into contact with glycosides, breaks the bond with the sugar and produces toxic hydrogen cyanide (HCN). ⁶ As soon as the berries are heated, the poison loses its effect at around 77 °C, ¹ as it is volatile and evaporates. ⁶

In addition, the plant contains lectins, which are also involved in digestive disorders. Lectins are high-molecular proteins, such as ricin (known from the castor plant - not: castor oil plant) or phasin (from raw beans). But lectins also have an antifungal, antibacterial and insecticidal effect. ⁹

In rare cases, allergic reactions of type I (immediate reaction) have occurred in connection with the consumption of elderberries. This was manifested in symptoms such as allergic rhinoconjunctivitis (disease of the nasal mucosa and eyes) and dyspnea (shortness of breath, shortness of breath), triggered by contact with flowers or preparations made from parts of the elder tree Sambucus nigra . A study published in 2003 identified the allergen "Sam n1" that is probably responsible for this. ³⁰

When producing elderberry juice, it is desirable to retain as many nutraceuticals, antioxidants and radical scavenging activities of the raw berry material as possible, with as little as possible of toxic cyanogenic glycosides, anti-nutritional factors and potential allergens such as Sam n1. A study has shown that heating in boiling water for 5 to 10 minutes makes the lectins contained sensitive to destruction by pepsin, a digestive enzyme found in gastric juice. During the short heating process, there was only a 10 percent or less reduction in the total phenol content as well as in radical scavenging and antioxidant activities. The authors summarized the advantages of the short heating process as follows: elimination of potential allergen risks, reduction of lectins, preservation of antioxidant activities, reduction of cyanogenic glycosides and partial sterilization of the juice. ³¹

Use as a medicinal plant:

Flowers and fruits are used as medicine. The flowers have a diaphoretic effect and are often used together with lime blossoms to treat colds. ⁵

How healthy is elderberry juice? The berries are said to have anti-inflammatory, circulatory-strengthening and capillary-protecting effects. ¹⁰

Leaves and bark, when applied externally, help with minor burns and chilblains. ¹¹

Folk medicine - natural healing:

In folk medicine, elderberries are known as an effective remedy for sciatica and nerve pain. Water retention, constipation and rheumatism were also treated with them in folk medicine, although this is now discouraged. ⁵

Occurrence - Origin:

The elderberry bush is widespread in Europe and North America. It also occurs in western Siberia, northern India, the Caucasus, Asia Minor and North Africa. It has been known as a medicinal plant - and especially the effects of its flowers and berries - since the 5th century BC. ¹⁰

Cultivation - Harvest:

Elderberry plants are known to grow wild and unpruned, usually as a shrub. Depending on the pruning, however, a low-stemmed tree can also develop. How tall does black elderberry grow? Elderberry grows very quickly on fertile and slightly moist soil and can reach a height of up to 10 m as a shrub. The bark is warty and smells somewhat unpleasant. ¹² The branches are filled with foamy pith. When does the elderberry blossom? During the flowering period, from the beginning of May to the end of June, the elderberry bush gives off a pleasant pineapple-like scent. ⁵

The deep black elderberries are ripe from September onwards. ¹³ The optimal ripening time can be recognised by the fact that all the berries are black-violet and that the umbels are leaning downwards. ¹

Due to the high demand, black elderberry is also grown on plantations in North America and Central Europe. The most common variety in Europe is Haschberg. This variety is not at risk from late frosts and there is no damage from falling leaves in bad weather, neither during flowering nor when fully ripe. This variety ripens early, and the yields are consistent and plentiful. The fruits are rather small, but the umbels are large. 10 umbels weigh around 1.1 kg. Pest infestation of this variety is low. Aphid infestation occurs most frequently in locations with little wind. ¹⁴

Possible diseases in Sambucus nigra are fungi such as Hyphodontia sambuci (elder bark fungus) or Auricularaia auricula-judae (Jew's ear). ¹⁵

Danger of confusion:

The dwarf elder ( Sambucus ebulus ) is very easy to confuse with the black elder ( Sambucus nigra ). ⁵ The growth form is somewhat smaller, only up to 1.5 m high, but the flowers and fruits look very similar. The poisonous berries of the dwarf elder point upwards, whereas the ripe fruits of the black elder hang down from the umbels.

The entire plant of the dwarf elder is poisonous, but especially the seeds of the black berries. Their main active ingredients are ebuloside and isosweroside. ¹⁶ Many people find the smell of the dwarf elder to be disgusting and repulsive.

Animal protection - species protection - animal welfare:

Black elderberry is native to Europe. It is therefore advisable to prefer this shrub to other, non-native species. In addition, elderberry offers nesting opportunities for many bird species and the berries provide plenty of food. Bees also benefit from the lush flowers as a source of pollen and nectar. ¹⁷

General information:

The black elderberry ( Sambucus nigra ) belongs to the musk herb family (Adoxaceae). According to Wikipedia, only the black, red and dwarf elderberry are native to Central Europe. ¹⁸

Alternative names:

Common names: Elder tree, Husholder, Keilken, Kisseke, Schwarzholder, Schwitztee ¹², Ellhorn, Flieder, Eller, Höller, Kelkenbusch. ¹⁹

The drug name for the elderberry fruit is Sambuci fructus, the elderberry flower is called Sambuci flos, the leaf is called Sambuci folium and the bark is called Sambuci cortex.

In English, black elderberry is called black elder, but it is also known as elderberry, European elder, European elderberry or European black elderberry. ²⁰

Other uses:

In the past, the dye sambicyanin from the black elderberry was used to dye hair, textiles or leather. Drinks (such as wine) were also dyed with the juice of the elderberry.

The flowers are used in the cosmetics industry to produce skin lotions, ointments and body oils. An extract of the leaves also helps as a natural insecticide. ¹¹

Literature - Sources: