Medicinal Shrubs: Rubus, Blackberry and Raspberry

One hundred and sixty-two varieties of Rubus have documented use in Herbal Medicine - way too many to list here! They are all used interchangeably. Suffice to say, if you find a Blackberry, Raspberry or Black Raspberry, Dewberry, etc. (any member of this plant family), you can use the leaves, roots and berries medicinally.

Native to my region are: Rubus allegheniensis (Allegheny Blackberry), Rubus argutus (Saw-tooth Blackberry, Southern Blackberry), Rubus canadensis (Smooth Blackberry), Rubus cuneifolius (Sand Blackberry), Rubus flagellaris (Northern Dewberry), Rubus hispidus (Bristly Dewberry, Swamp Dewberry), Rubus idaeus ssp. strigosus (Red Raspberry), Rubus occidentalis (Black Raspberry), Rubus odoratus (Flowering Raspberry) and Rubus trivialis (Southern Dewberry). Five varieties have been naturalized, Rubus bifrons (Himalayan Berry), Rubus idaeus ssp. idaeus (Cultivated Red Raspberry), Rubus illecebrosus (Strawberry Raspberry), Rubus laciniatus (Cutleaf Blackberry) and Rubus phoenicolasius (Wineberry).

Blackberries are my favorite fruit. I love them eaten out of hand, in pies and jams, over ice cream, made into wine… you name it. Wild blackberries may be as sweet as cultivated varieties, tart or even peppery. It all depends on where they grow. However, the Rubis plants are in the Rose family and can be used similarly. Wild plants are generally far more potent medicinally than cultivated bushes,which are fertilized and regularly watered. The rule of thumb is that if the leaf is sour and tastes slightly reminiscent of the berry, the leaves make good medicine.

Dioscorides wrote of Rubus as Batus:

Batus (with which we are familiar) binds and dries, and it dyes the hair. A decoction of the tops of it (as a drink) stops the flows of the intestines, restrains the excessive menstrual flows of women, and is convenient for the bites of the prester [mythological snake]. The leaves are chewed to strengthen the gums and heal apthae [aptylia — absence of saliva]. The leaves (applied) restrain herpes [viral skin infection], heal running ulcers on the head, drooping eyes, venereal warts, and haemorrhoids. Pounded into small pieces and applied, they are available for gastritis and heart conditions. The juice from the bruised stalks and leaves stirred in the sun does better for all the purposes previously mentioned. The juice of the thoroughly ripe fruit is good put into oral medicines. Eaten when it is half-ripe, it also stops discharges of the intestines. The flowers of it (as a drink with wine) also stop the bowels. It is also called cynosbatos, selinorition, or asyntrophon. The Magi say sanguis Titani, some, sanguis ibis, the Romans,sentis, some,rubus, or mora vaticana, the Dacians, mantia, the Egyptians, haemceos, and some, ametros.

It is called rubus idaeus because it grows abundantly in Ida — but it is much more tender than that above, with little prickles, and it is also found without prickles. It does the same things as that mentioned above, and furthermore the flower (pounded into small pieces with honey and rubbed on) helps eye inflammation, and extinguishes erysipela [streptococcal skin infection]. It is given in a drink with water for gastritis.

Saint Hildegard von Bingen wrote of Blackberries:

The bramble on which dewberries or blackberries grow is more hot than cold. If someone’s tongue either swells up or has ulcers, he should use a bramble, or a small lancet, to cut his tongue, so that the mucus breaks through. If he has a toothache, he should do the same thing to his gums and he will be better. If worms eat a person or animal, pulverize bramble and place the powder on the flesh where the worms are eating. The worms will die, and the person will be healed. If someone’s lungs are ailing and he has a chest cough, he should take feverfew, and a little less bramble, even less hyssop and a smaller amount of oregano. He should boil this in good wine, with honey, then strain it through a cloth and drink a little after eating moderately. Later he may drink more of it, after a full meal. If he does this regularly, his lungs will recuperate and the mucus will be carried away from his chest. Moreover, dewberry fruit which grows on bramble harms neither a healthy, not a sick person, and is easily digested, although medicine is not found in it

Gerard wrote:

A. The young, buds or tender tops of the Bramble bush, the flowers, the leaves, and the unripe fruit, do very much dry and bind withal: being chewed they take away the heat and inflammation of the mouth, and almonds of the throat: they stay the bloody flux, and other fluxes, and all manner of bleedings: of the same force is their decoction, with a little honey added.

B. They heal the eyes that hang out, hard knots in the fundament, and stay the hemorrhoids, if the leaves be laid thereunto.

C. The juice which is pressed out of the stalks, leaves, and unripe berries, and made hard in the sun, is more effectual for all those things.

D. The ripe fruit is sweet, and containeth in it much juice of a temperate heat, therefore it is not unpleasant to be eaten.

E. It hath also a certain kind of astriction or binding quality.

F. It is likewise for that cause wholesome for the stomach, and if a man eat too largely thereof, saith Galen, he shall have the headache: but being dried whilst it is yet unripe it bindeth and drieth more than the ripe fruit.

G. The root besides that it is binding, containeth in it much thin substance, by reason whereof it wasteth away the stone in the kidneys, saith Galen.

H. Pliny writeth, that the berries and flowers do provoke urine, and that the decoction of them in wine is a present remedy against the stone.

I. The leaves of the Bramble boiled in water, with honey, alum, and a little white wine added thereto, make a most excellent lotion or washing water to heal the sores in the mouth, the privy parts of man or woman, and the same decoction fasteneth the teeth.

K. The Raspis is thought to be like the Bramble in temperature and virtues, but not so much binding or drying. The Raspis, saith Dioscorides, performeth those things which the Bramble doth. The fruit is good to be given to those that have weak and queasy stomachs.

Culpepper tells us:

Government and virtues. It is a plant of Venus in Aries. You have directions at the latter end of the book for the gathering of all herbs, plants, &c. The reason why Venus is so prickly is because she is in the house of Mars. The buds, leaves, and branches, while they are green, are of good use in the ulcers and putrid sores of the mouth and throat, and for the quinsey; and likewise to heal other fresh wounds and sores: but the flowers and fruit unripe are very binding; they are also profitable for the bloody flux and lasks, and a fit remedy for spitting of blood. Either the decoction or powder of the root, being taken, is good to break or drive forth gravel and the stone in the reins or kidneys. The leaves and brambles, as well green as dry, are good lotions for sores in the mouth or secret parts; the decoction of them and of the dried branches doth much bind the belly, and is good for too much flowing of women's courses; the berries or the flowers are a powerful remedy against the poison of the most venomous serpents as well drunk, as outwardly applied, and help the sores of the fundament, and the piles; the juice of the berries, mixed with juice of mulberries, do bind more effectually, and help fretting and eating sores and ulcers wheresoever. The distilled water of the branches, leaves, and flowers, or fruit, is very pleasant in taste, and very effectual in fevers and hot distempers of the body, head, eyes, and other parts, and for all the purposes aforesaid. The leaves boiled in lye, and the head washed therewith heal the itch, and the running sores thereof, and make the hair black. The powder of the leaves strewed on cancers and running ulcers, doth wonderfully help to heal them. Some condensate the juice of the leaves, and some the juice of the berries, to keep for their use all the year, for the purposes aforesaid.

Mrs. Grieve tells us:

The Blackberry, or Bramble, growing in every English hedge-row, is too well known to need description. Its blossoms, as well as its fruits, both green and ripe, may be seen on the bush: at the same time, a somewhat unusual feature, not often met with in other plants.

History---The name of the bush is derived from brambel, or brymbyl, signifying prickly. We read of it as far back as the days of Jonathan, when he upbraided the men of Shechem for their ingratitude to his father's house, relating to them the parable of the trees choosing a king, the humble bramble being finally elected, after the olive, fig-tree and vine had refused the dignity. The ancient Greeks knew Blackberries well, and considered them a remedy for gout.

Opinions differ as to whether there is one true Blackberry with many aberrant forms; or many distinct types. Professor Babington divides the British Rubi into forty-one species, or more.

Rubus rhamnifolius and R. coryfolius furnish the Blackberries of the hedges, in which the calyx of the fruit is reflexed; has also a reflexed calyx, but the leaves are hoary underneath. R. coesius furnishes Dewberries, distinguished by the large size of the grains, which are covered with bloom and few in number, the whole being closely clasped by the calyx. R. saxatilis, the Roebuck-berry, and the badge of the McNabs, is an herbaceous species found in mountainous places in the North, and distinguished by its ternate leaves and fruit of few red large grains.

R. chamaenorus, the Cloudberry, and badge of the McFarlanes, is also herbaceous, with an erect stem, 6 to 8 inches high, lobed leaves and a single flower which is succeeded by a large orange-red fruit of an agreeable flavour. The double-flowering Rubus of gardens is a variety of R. fructicosus. R. lancinatus, of which the native country is unknown, is a rampant species with deeplycut leaves and large black fruit, which are highly ornamental in autumn.

R. odoratus, the American Bramble, is an erect, unbranched shrub, with large fivelobed leaves and rose-coloured flowers.

R. occidentalis, the Virginian raspberry, has pinnate and ternate leaves, white flowers and black fruit. It is well known that the barren shoots of most of our British Rubi from being too flexile to keep upright, bend downwards even from the hedges and thickets, and root their ends in the soil, thus following that mode of increase which in the strawberry is effected by the scion. The loop thus formed was formerly an object of occasional search, being reputed in some counties (and we have known it so in Gloucestershire) as capable of curing hernia or rupture when used aright, to which end the afflicted child is passed backwards and forwards through the arching bramble. The origin of this custom is difficult to trace; but quoting from Notes and Queries, the passing of children through holes in the earth, rocks, and trees, once an established rite, is still practised in various parts of Cornwall. Children affected with hernia are still passed through a slit in an ash sapling before sunrise, fasting; after which the slit portions are bound up, and as they unite so the malady is cured.

It would appear that in Cornwall the bramble-cure is only employed for boils, the sufferer being either dragged or made to crawl beneath the rooted shoot. We have heard of cows that were said to be 'mousecrope,' or to have been walked over by a shrew-mouse (an ancient way of accounting for paralysis), being dragged through the bramble-loop, in which case, if the creature could wait the time of finding a loop large enough, and suffer the dragging process at the end, we should say the case would not be so hopeless as that of our friend's fat pig, who, when she was ailing, 'had a mind to kill her to make sure on her!' (LINDLEY S Treasury of Botany.)

The Blackberry is known in some parts of the country as 'Scaldhead,' either from producing the eruption known as scaldhead in children who eat the fruit to excess - the over-ripe fruit being indigestible - or from the curative effects of the leaves and berries in this malady of the scalp, or from the remedial effects of the leaves, when applied externally to scalds. The leaves are said to be still in use in England as a remedy for burns and scalds; formerly their operation was helped by a spoken charm. Creeping under a Bramble-bush was itself a charm against rheumatism, boils, blackheads, etc. Blackberries were in olden days supposed to give protection against all 'evil runes,' if gathered at the right time of the moon. The whole plant had once a considerable popular reputation both as a medicine and as a charm for various disorders. The flowers and fruit were from very ancient times used to remedy venomous bites; the young shoots, eaten as a salad, were thought - though Gerard cautiously suggests the addition of a little alum - to fasten loose teeth. Gerard and other herbalists regard the bramble as a valuable astringent, whether eaten or applied: its leaves 'heal the eies that hang out,' and are a most useful application for piles, its fruit stops looseness of the bowels and is good for stone, and for soreness in mouth and throat.

Medicinal Action and Uses---The bark of the root and the leaves contain much tannin, and have long been esteemed as a capital astringent and tonic, proving a valuable remedy for dysentery and diarrhoea, etc. The root is the more astringent.

Preparations---Fluid extract, 1/2 to 1 drachm. Fluid extract, root, U.S.P., 15 drops. Syrup, U.S.P., 1 drachm.

The fruit contains malic and citric acids, pectin and albumen. If desiccated in a moderately hot oven and then reduced to a powder, it is a reliable remedy for dysentery.

The root-bark, as used medicinally, should appear in thin tough, flexible bands, inodorous, strongly astringent and somewhat bitter. It should be peeled off the root and dried by artificial heat or in strong sun. One ounce, boiled in 1 1/2 pint water or milk down to a pint, makes a good decoction. Half a teacupful should be taken every hour or two for diarrhoea. One ounce of the bruised root, likewise boiled in water, may also be used, the dose being larger, however. The same decoction is said to be useful against whooping-cough in the spasmodic stage.

The leaves are also employed for the same purpose. One ounce of the dried leaves, infused in one pint of boiling water, and the infusion taken cold, a teacupful at a time, makes a serviceable remedy for dysentery, etc.

Other Species---Of the genus Rubus a large number are indigenous in the United States, where they are called Blackberry, Dewberry, Cloudberry. Most of them are shrubby or suffruticose briers, with astringent roots and edible berries, some have annual stems without prickles, these are called Raspberries.

RECIPES

Blackberry Wine---Blackberry jelly has been used with good effects in cases of dropsy caused by feeble, ineffective circulation, and the London Pharmacopoeia (1696) declared the ripe berries of the bramble to be a great cordial, and to contain a notable restorative spirit. Blackberry wine is made by crushing the fruit and adding one quart of boiling water to each gallon of the fruit, allowing to stand for 24 hours, stirring occasionally, and then straining off the liquid. 2 lb. of white sugar are then added to every gallon, and it is kept in a tightly corked cask till the following October. This makes a trustworthy cordial astringent, used in looseness of the bowels. Another delicious cordial is made from pressing out the juice from the ripe Blackberries, adding 2 lb. of sugar to each quart and 1/2 oz. of nutmegs and cloves. Boil all together for a short time, allow to get cold and then add a little brandy.

In Crusoe's Treasury of Easy Medicines (1771) a decoction of Blackberry leaves is recommended as a fomentation for longstanding ulcers. There is also a popular country notion that the young shoots, eaten as a salad, will fasten loose teeth. A noted hair-dye has been made by boiling the leaves in strong lye, which imparts to the hair a permanent soft black colour.

Blackberry Vinegar---is a wholesome drink that is easily made and can with advantage have its place in the store cupboard for use in winter, being a fine cordial for a feverish cold.

Gather the berries on a fine day, stalk them, put into an earthenware vessel and cover with malt vinegar. Let them stand three days to draw out the juice. Strain through a sieve, drain thoroughly, leaving them to drip through all day. Measure the juice and allow a pound of sugar to each pint. Put into a preserving pan, boil gently for 5 minutes, removing scum as it rises, set aside to cool, and when cold, bottle and cork well.

A teaspoonful of this, mixed with water will often quench thirst when other beverages fail and makes a delicious drink in fever.

An Irish Herbal states:

Bramble: The tops and young buds cures sores and ulcers of the mouth, throat and uvula, and held in the mouth and chewed. The secure loose teeth. A decoction of them is effective in stopping diarrhea, menstrual discharge and any flow of blood. The roots provoke urine and break up the bladder stone, and the crushed leaves cure piles.

Raspberry: An application of the flowers bruised with honey is beneficial for inflammations of the eyes, burning fevers and boils. A decoction is useful for weak stomachs. The fruit is good for the heart and diseases of the mouth.

Brother Aloysius wrote:

Blackberry: The leaves have a very astringent effect. They should be picked before the shrub blooms…. The infusion of leaves and young stems is very good for diarrhea, dysentery, leukorrhea, sore throat, swollen gums, inflammation of the tonsils and thrush… Fresh, bruised leaves are very beneficial on old sores and eczema; the bruised herb should be placed on the affected area.

Raspberry: Medicinally, raspberry is used for measles, fever and scarlet fever. The infusion of the leaves is a famous remedy for diarrhea and dysentery, especially if these complaints occur in the summer. A tea is also highly recommended for abdominal pain in children for menstrual disorders.

Father Kunzel included Blackberry, Raspberry Currants, etc. in his Spring Cure:

You send Tony or Jacob into the nearest bushes with a basket and a knife. There he cuts many shoots from all types of thorny bushes: dog rose (Rosa cantina), blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), hawthorn (Crataegus), raspberry (rubus idaeus), and blackberry (rubus fruticosus) and shoots from fir trees, beeches (fagus), hazel trees, cherry trees, oaks, larches, ash trees, poplars. Furthermore you can also take shoots from currants, from gooseberries, from fruit trees.

A handful of this mixture is then thrown into a pan, one to two liters of water are poured in, and the mixture is heated until it simmers. The sick person should drink one to two liters of this liquid daily with sugar. This tea cleanses the whole body. It has already turned very sick people into healthy and flourishing ones again. However, if the effect is to be lasting, this cure must be continued for eight days. The lost appetite returns, the headache and pressure in the abdomen are gone, the pale color vanishes, the grave digger can put his shovel back in his shed. And this poor creature, previously so pale and shaky, can again rule in the kitchen with power and dignity. If she takes five or seven good fir tree twigs baths, she is fresh and sunny again like a bride!

It is known that mustard has extracting qualities, that is why mustard plasters are often used for painful rheumatic areas. The well-known, expensive American plasters contain extracting substances

The Ashkenazi Jews used these plants:

Hayya Sorele Lubetski’s daughter, Batia, for example, still swore by her mother’s cure for hepatitis: a drink made of ground up raspberry vines, dandelions, carrots, followed by a drink of fresh chamomile infusion.

The authors of Life Is with People sum up what must have been a very common occurrence: “a wealthy man, whose wife, in an effort to help her community, would supply the infirm with raspberry syrup, which was the marvel drug of shtetl.”

In Poland:

Blackberry syrups, wines and cordials were felt to be medicinal for coughs. Colds and sore throats… “A handful is thrown into a quart and a half of water until only a quart remains. Strain and drink. Quenches thirst during a fever, sops bloody lungs and diarrhea”

A Russian Herbal tells us:

Russians adore raspberries. Many collect them in the forest every summer or grow them in their own gardens. Russians use raspberries in a multitude of recipes, including wines, jams and jellies. During the winter months, raspberry preserves serve as a primary remedy for treating colds and flu as well as for high fevers.

… Folk herbalists prescribe a decoction made from raspberry tops with leaves to relieve symptoms of colds and flu, acute respiratory inflammations, and skin erysipelas. A leaf decoction is also good for relieving coughs, quinsy, tonsillitis and a high fever. A root decoction serves the same purpose and is considered effective for treating symptoms of diarrhea and colic as well. Root decoctions are also used to treat neuritis, neurasthenia and bronchial asthma. A decoction made from roots and flowers is used by folk healers to treat leukorrhea in women.

The Cherokee used several varieties of Rubus:

Southern Blackberry: A root tea good for bowel complaints.

Blackberry: An ingredient in medicine… “For irregular urination.” Wash the root, chew it to take the coat off the tongue. Root tea is drunk for summer complaint. Root tea for dysentery. The root is good to chew for cough.

Raspberry: An ingredient in the medicine.. “For menstruating women who dream of giving birth to animals or unnatural beings.” If two sisters have babies and one of the sisters dies, the other sister can nurse the dead sister’s baby only if the baby takes a medicine before suckling. Otherwise, it will sicken and die. Steep the root of regular wild raspberry growing toward the east and have the baby drink befor suckling.

Black Raspberry: The roots are used for toothache.

Dewberry: The roots of dewberry, Pinus virginiana, and Alnus serrulata (a handful of each) are made into a tea which is good for piles. The tea is drunk and used as a bath.

In the Thomsonian System of Medicine:

RED RASPBERRY. Rubus Strigosus.

(Dr. Thomson.)

This is an excellent article, and I believe was never made use of as medicine till discovered by me. When in Eastport, I had no article with me good for canker, and I resorted to my old rule of tasting, and found that these leaves were good for that complaint ; made into a strong tea, it answered every purpose wished. I gathered a large quantity of the leaves, and dried them, and have been in constant use of it as a medicine ever since, and have found it an excellent article, both for canker and many other complaints, for relax and other bowel complaints of children, it is the best thing that I have found; by giving the tea and using it in the injections, it affords immediate relief. A tea made of the leaves, sweetened, with milk in it, is very pleasant, and may be used freely. It is the best thing for women in travail of any article I know of. Give a strong tea of it, with a little of No. 2, sweetened, and it will regulate everything as Nature requires. If the pains are untimely, it will make all quiet ; if timely and lingering, give more No. 2 and Umbil in the tea. When the child is born, give it some of the tea with sugar and milk in it; this prevents sore mouth, and the tea is good to wash sore nipples with. A poultice made with this tea and cracker, or slippery-elm bark, is very good for burns or scalds; if the skin is off, by applying this poutlice or washing with the tea, it will harden and stop smarting. It may be used in No. 3 as a substitute for other articles, or alone, to good effect.

The leaves are a mild, pleasant, soothing, diffusive, stimualting, astringent tonic. It allays nausea, sustains the nerves, and tones the mucous membranes, It is effective in acute and chronic dysentery and diarrhoea although not as pronounced as some of the other remedies given. It will do good service in urethral irritation and soothe the kidneys and urinary tract and ducts. It will also sustain the uterus and stop hemorrhages. As an injection in leucorrhoea, gonorrhoea, dysentery and diarrhoea it is of much use as an injection. The dose of the Tincture is from 20 to 40 minims.

King’s American Dispensatory of 1898 states:

Rubus villosus is a perennial, half shrubby plant, pubescent and prickly. Its root is woody, knotty, and horizontal, and sends up a tall, branching, slender, prickly, more or less furrowed and angular stem, recurved at top, and from 3 to 6 feet high. The leaves are mostly in threes, sometimes fives, often solitary, on a channeled, hairy petiole; leaflets ovate, acuminate, sharply and unequally serrate, covered with scattered hairs above, and with a thick, soft pubescence underneath; terminal stalked; 2 side ones sessile; petiole and back of the midrib commonly armed with short, recurved prickles. Branchlets, stalks, and lower surface of the leaves hairy and glandular; leaflets from 2 ½ to 4 inches long, by 1 ½ to 2 ½ inches wide. Flowers large, in erect racemes, with a hairy, prickly stalk; pedicels slender, 1 or 2 inches long, with glandular hairs and lanceolate bracts. Petals 5, white, ovate or oblong, concave, contracted into a short claw at base. Calyx short, with ovate, hairy segments, ending in an acuminate point, or a lanceolate leaflet. Stamens numerous, inserted on the calyx along with the petals; filaments slender; anthers small. The fruit is large, at first green, then red, and, when matured, black; it consists of about 20 roundish, shining, black, fleshy carpels, closely collected into an ovate or oblong head, subacid, well flavored, and ripening in August and September (L.—W.—G.).

Rubus canadensis, sometimes called Low or Creeping blackberry, has a slender, prickly stem, procumbent, or trailing several yards upon the ground. The leaves are petiolate, of three (or pedately 5 or 7) leaflets, which are elliptical, or rhomboidal-oval, acute, thin, membranaceous, sharply and unequally cut-serrate, often somewhat incised, somewhat pubescent, 1 to 1 ½ inches long, and about one-half as wide. The flowers are large, white, nearly solitary, on slender, elongated, prickly, somewhat corymbed pedicels, with leafy bracts; lower peduncles distant; upper crowded. Petals obovate and twice as long as the calyx. The fruit is large, black, very sweet, and juicy (W.—T.—G).

Rubus trivialis, or Low-bush blackberry, of the southern states (Southern dewberry), has a procumbent, shrubby stem, armed with both prickles and bristles. The leaves are trifoliate, or pedately 5-parted, evergreen, leathery, and almost smooth. The leaflets are sharply serrate, and of the ovate-oblong or lanceolate form. Flowers large, and from 1 to 3 to the peduncles. They blossom in March.

History, Description, and Chemical Composition.—The Dewberry grows wild in dry, stony fields, gravelly soil, and neglected grounds, and is common from Canada to Virginia, flowering in May, and ripening its fruit in July and August. The root is the official part; it is generally smaller than the blackberry root, with its external covering transversely cracked, of a dark, brownish-gray color, odorless, and woody internally. The Southern dewberry blooms in March, and matures its fruit in May. It is found in sandy soils from Virginia to Florida, and from thence westward. Blackberry grows abundantly in most parts of the United States, in old fields, by the roadside, and on the borders of thickets, flowering from May to July and maturing its fruit in August. The bark of the root is the part used. As demanded by the U. S. P., it is "in thin, tough, flexible bands, outer surface blackish, or blackish-gray, inner surface pale-brownish, sometimes with strips of whitish, tasteless wood adhering; inodorous; taste strongly astringent, somewhat bitter"—(U. S. P.).

These plants possess astringent medicinal properties, and maybe substituted the one for the other. The bark of the old roots, or the smaller roots, of dewberry and blackberry, should always be preferred, as the woody portion is inert. Their properties are similar, and they impart their virtues to water, alcohol, or port wine. The fruits of these plants (and Rubus strigosus) are much esteemed as an article of diet, and have been manufactured into cordials, jams, jellies, and syrups. They contain volatile oil, coloring matters, citric and malic acids, sugar, mucilage, etc. The root-bark of Rubus villosus, according to analysis by G. A. Krauss (Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1889, p. 605, and 1890, p. 161), contains a crystallizable, bitter glucosid, villosin, sparingly soluble in water and petroleum benzin; freely soluble in alcohol, insoluble in chloroform, nearly so in ether. It is rather unstable, being readily hydrolyzed into sugar and resinous villosic acid, soluble in alcohol, ether, and chloroform. Herman Harms (ibid., 1894, p. 580) believes villosin to be allied to saponin. This author found the dry bark to contain from 12 to 19 per cent of tannin.

Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—These plants are useful as astringents. An infusion or decoction of the leaves of raspberry (see Rubus Idaeus), or the bark of the roots of the other two, has been found an excellent remedy in diarrhoea, dysentery (chronic), cholera infantum, relaxed conditions of the intestines of children, passive hemorrhage from the stomach, bowels, or uterus, and in colliquative diarrhoea. The decoction, used as an injection, is useful in gonorrhoea, gleet, leucorrhoea, and prolapsus uteri and ani. In prolapsus uteri, it may be used either alone or combined with the internal use of a decoction of equal parts of black cohosh and blackberry roots, taken freely. Rubus villosus is especially adapted to children's diarrhoeas, the stools being copious, watery, and clay-colored. Such children are pale, fretful, without appetite, there is deficient glandular activity, and the gastro-intestinal tract shows evidence of enfeeblement and relaxation. The leaves of raspberry, in decoction with cream, will allay nausea and vomiting, and, combined with aromatics, have been found useful in diarrhoea, cholera morbus, and cholera infantum. It is said that raspberry will, during labor, increase the activity of the uterine contractions when these are feeble, even in instances where ergot has failed, and that it has been found serviceable in after-pains. The fruit, especially that of the blackberry, makes an excellent syrup, which is of much service in dysentery, being pleasant to the taste, mitigating the accompanying tenesmus and sufferings of the patient, and ultimately effecting a cure. The fruit of the raspberry contains very little nourishment, but is an agreeable acidulous article, rarely disturbing the stomach, and, when eaten freely, promotes the action of the bowels. Raspberry syrup, added to water, forms a refreshing and beneficial beverage for fever patients, and during convalescence. The jelly or jam may likewise be used in similar cases; that of the blackberry being more astringent, is better adapted to cases of diarrhoea, dysentery, and cholera infantum. Dose of the decoction of these plants, from 1 to 4 fluid ounces, several times a day; of the pulverized root-bark, 20 to 30 grains.

Specific Indications and Uses.—(Rubus villosus.) Gastro-intestinal atony, with copious, watery, and pale alvine discharges.

Rubus Idaeus, or cultivated raspberry, is indigenous to Europe and to Asia, eastward to Japan, where the red raspberry is likewise found. The Red raspberry grows wild, and is common to Canada and the northern United States, growing in hedges, neglected fields, thickets, and hills, flowering in May, and ripening its fruit from June to August. The leaves and fruit are the medicinal parts. The leaves impart their properties to water, giving to the infusion an odor and flavor somewhat similar to that of some kinds of black tea. The U. S. P. describes Rubus Idaeus fruit as follows: "Deprived of the conical receptacle, and, therefore, hollow at the base; hemispherical, red, finely hairy, composed of from 20 to 30 coalesced, small drupes, each one crowned with the withered style; juice red; of an agreeable odor, and a pleasant, acidulous taste. The closely allied, light-red fruit of Rubus strigosus, Michaux, and the purplish-black fruit of Rubus occidentalis, Linné, may be employed in place of the above"—(U. S. P.). The Rubus occidentalis is the Black raspberry, or Thimbleberry, common in waste places and fence corners from Canada to Georgia, and west. Its fruit is inferior to that of the preceding varieties.

Chemical Composition.—According to analysis by Seyffert (Archiv der Pharm., 1879, p. 324), garden raspberries yielded 9 per cent more juice than a wildgrowing variety. Acidity was about equal in both specimens (1.4 per cent). The cultivated variety contained 4.5 per cent of sugar, while the other had only 2.8 per cent (referred to fresh berries). According to Papst (see Dragendorff's Heilpflanzen, p. 278), the acids of raspberry juice are chiefly malic and citric acids; the sugar consists of laevulose (4.6 per cent) and dextrose (2.5 per cent). Raspberry camphor is a volatile solid, which forms in an aqueous distillate from pressed raspberries (Bley; see Husemann and Hilger, Pflanzenstoffe, p. 1005).

Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Same as for Rubus. A syrup is prepared from R. Idaeus.

Related Species.—Rubus odoratus, Linné, Rose-flowering raspberry, or Mulberry (Real Mulberry is Morus sp. -Henriette), has an erect or reclining, unarmed, glandular-pilose, shrubby stem, from 3 to 5 feet in height. Leaves 4 to 8 inches long, nearly as wide, cordate at base, palmately 3 to 5-lobed, unequally serrate; lobes acuminate, the middle one prolonged; petioles 2 or 3 inches long, and with the peduncles, calyx, and branches clothed with viscid hairs. Flowers many, large, nearly 2 inches in diameter, in terminal corymbs. Petals orbicular, purple-rose color; stamens numerous, whitish. Fruit broad and thin, bright-red, sweet. This plant grows on rocky banks and in upland woods in the United States and Canada, flowering in June and July, and ripening its fruit in August. A decoction of it is said to be powerfully diuretic, and may be used freely in affections of the urinary organs, and dropsy (W.—G.).

Rubus Chamaemorus, Linné, or Cloudberry, is a small, herbaceous plant, found in our White Mountains. Mr. C. O. Cech found the berries to contain much sugar, citric acid, and an orange-yellow coloring matter. In Russia, where it is indigenous, the infusion of the leaves is successfully employed in cystic debility and dropsy.

Jethro Kloss wrote:

BLACKBERRY (Rubus villosus)

Common Names: Bramble, cloudberry, thimbleberry, dewberry.

Part Used: Root, leaves.

Medicinal Properties: Astringent, tonic.

Description and Uses: Blackberry is a fine remedy for dysentery and diarrhea. It is also good for bleeding; either internally or from the rectum or mouth. This herb has a high tannin content and should be taken for a limited time only, not more than one week at a time. A little honey or cinnamon makes it a more palatable medication. It is available as a tincture, one half to one teaspoonful twice daily in water.

Jethro Kloss wrote:

RED RASPBERRY (Rubus strigosus)

Common Names: Wild red raspberry, raspberry.

Part Used: Leaves, berries.

Medicinal Properties: Leaves — antiemetic, astringent, purgative, stomachic, parturient, tonic, stimulant, alterative.

Fruit — laxative, esculent, antacid, parturient.

Description and Uses: Will heal canker sores that develop on mucous membranes. Take one cup of tea every hour until the canker sores disappear.

During this time, eat no food but drink only juice. The tea has been reported to speed up delivery as well as easing labor pains. Excellent for dysentery and diarrhea, especially in infants. It decreases the menstrual flow without abruptly stopping it. Good to combine in such cases with prickly ash, blue cohosh, wild yam, and cinnamon. Is very soothing and does not excite. Will allay nausea. When the bowels are greatly relaxed, use in place of coffee or tea. Good for intestinal problems in children.

To make red raspberry tea, take one ounce of the dried herb or one handful of fresh leaves and pour over them a pint of boiling hot water. Cover and let steep for fifteen to twenty minutes. Then strain and drink one or two cups a day. A little honey may be added if desired. The leaves are available in powder form also.

Plants for A Future states:

Medicinal use of Alleghany Blackberry: The roots are antihaemorrhoidal, antirheumatic, astringent, stimulant and tonic. An infusion can be used in the treatment of stomach complaints, diarrhoea, piles, coughs and colds, tuberculosis and rheumatism. The infusion has also been used by women threatened with a miscarriage. The root can be chewed to treat a coated tongue. An infusion of the root has been used as a wash for sore eyes. The leaves are astringent. An infusion can be used in the treatment of diarrhoea. An infusion of the bark has been used in the treatment of urinary problems. A decoction of the stems has been used as a diuretic.

Medicinal use of Highbush Blackberry: The roots are antihaemorrhoidal, antirheumatic, astringent, stimulant and tonic. An infusion can be used in the treatment of venereal disease and as a wash in the treatment of piles. An infusion of the roots or leaves can be used in the treatment of diarrhoea and rheumatism.

Medicinal use of American Dewberry: The stems and the fruit have been used in the treatment of dysentery. A decoction of the root has been used in the treatment of dysentery.

Medicinal use of Northern Dewberry: The root is astringent, stimulant and tonic. An infusion has been used in the treatment of diarrhoea, venereal disease and rheumatism. An infusion has been used as a wash in the treatment of piles. The root has been chewed as a treatment for a coated tongue. The leaves are astringent. An infusion has been used in the treatment of diarrhoea.

Medicinal use of Swamp Dewberry: The plant has astringent properties. The juice of the plant has been used in the treatment of diarrhoea and dysentery. An infusion of the fruits in warm water has been used as a vermifuge. An infusion of the roots has been used in the treatment of consumption, coughs and fevers.

Medicinal use of Thimbleberry: The leaves are highly astringent. They are used in the treatment of dysentery and diarrhoea. The leaves have been used as a wash for old and foul sores, boils etc. A decoction or infusion of the branches has been used to settle the stomach. A decoction of the leaves and stems has been used to treat kidney complaints. The root is astringent. A decoction of the root or the root bark has been used as a treatment for diarrhoea and colds. The root has been used in the treatment of toothaches. The berries have been used as a diuretic.

Medicinal use of Southern Dewberry: The root is astringent, stimulant and tonic. An infusion can be used in the treatment of rheumatism and diarrhoea. An infusion has been used as a wash for piles. The washed root has been chewed as a treatment for a coated tongue. The leaves are astringent. An infusion can be used in the treatment of stomach complaints, rheumatism and diarrhoea.

Peterson Field Guides Eastern and Central Medicinal Plants states:

Red Raspberry: Astringent leaf tea folk remedy for diarrhea, dysentery, used to strengthen pregnant women,aid in childbirth. Root also used. Animal studies suggest efficacy in childbirth, painful menstrual cramps. Active compound relaxes and stimulates the uterus. Fruit syrup (juice boiled in sugar) gargle for inflamed tonsils.

Black Raspberry: Astringent root tea traditionally used for diarrhea, dysentery, stomach pain, gonorrhea, back pain, “female tonic,” blood tolic for boils. Leaf tea a wash for sores, ulcers and boils.

Related species: The same parts of most blackberry plants (other Rubus species) have been used similarly).

This article is an excerpt from 

Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines of The American Southeast An Herbalist's Guide

Read about Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines of The American Southeast An Herbalist's Guide: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/06/medicinal-shrubs-and-woody-vines-of.html

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Disclaimer

The information on this site is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing on this site has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I am not a doctor. The US government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine and their is no governing body regulating herbalists. Therefore, I'm just a guy who studies herbs. I am not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write is accurate or true! I can tell you what herbs have "traditionally been used for." I can tell you my own experience and if I believe an herb helped me. I cannot, nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use any herb I, or anyone else, mentions you are treating yourself. You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy, sensitivity or underlying condition that no one else shares and you don't even know about. Be careful with your health. By continuing to read my blog you agree to be responsible for yourself, do your own research, make your own choices and not to blame me for anything, ever.