Black Raspberry Medicine

From: Ela Younger
Date: Sun Jan 30, 2000 5:21pm

Linda,

I went to the library today and was able to pull this book off the shelf and check it 
out to type up the information that I told you about. Kavasch's book did not mention the
berries in this context and Hutchen's book was not available....hope this helps you with
your search....as always, Ela

Taken from pages 277-78 of Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie. Kelly Kindscher.

Rubus Occidentalis
Black raspberry

Raspberries, blackberries and dewberries were commonly used by the Indians for both food
and medicine. The Omaha name for the raspberry bush is "takan hecha" (no translation 
given)/ The Omaha's scraped and boiled the root of the black raspberry and fed it to 
children with bowel trouble (Gilmore, 1977, page 33). John Dunn Hunter described the 
same use for the dewberry, Rebus Flagler's l., apparently by the Osages (Hunter, 1957, 
p376). It was considered a weak remedy.

The Mesquakies made a beverage tea called atetta (red root) from the roots of the black 
raspberry ad the red raspberry, R. idaeus L. susp sachalinensis (Levl) Focke. this tea 
was also mixed with other medicines as a "seasoner" (Smith, 1928, p243). (The red 
raspberry is native to Europe, but has become established in many parts of North 
America.) The Kiowa- Apaches used the root of the blackberry (Rubus species) to make a 
tea for diarrhea and stomachache. For this purpose, the root was dug in summer and 
either used fresh or dried. The medicine was very bitter, causing the mouth to pucker 
(Jordan, 1965, p129).

In Appalachia the roots of various Rubus species were used in a number of folk medicines
(Boylard et al., 1981, p 128). Blackberry root tea was drunk for hemorrhaging and 
hemophilia, When take every three hours it was used for summer sickness and diarrhea. It
was also drunk during childbirth to speed delivery. Raspberry root tea was also used for
this purpose. Dewberry and blackberry roots were boiled together to make a strong tea 
used to relieve abdominal pains. The pain of a beesting was also relived by rubbing a 
raspberry leaf on the sting.

In 1830 Constantine Rafinesque reported these uses of wild raspberries and blackberries,
Rubus species:

"Nearly 30 wild species....Roots of all more or less astringent, subtonic, much used in 
cholera infantum, chronic dysentery, diarrhea, ect... The Cherokis chew them for cough: 
A cold poultice useful in piles; used with Lobelia in gonorrhea....Ripe fruits, 
preserves, jam, jelly or syrup, grateful and beneficial in diarrhea, gravel, hemoptysis,
phthisis, sore- throat, putrid and malignant fevers, scurvy...Raspberries afford 
delicious distilled water, beer, mead and wine, Said to dissolve tartar of teeth 
(Rafinesque, 1830,p 258).

The juice of the blackberry fruit, spiced and mixed with whisky, was a valued 
carminative in Kentucky and other southern states. It is the flavoring ingredient in the
well-known Blackberry-cordial (Lloyd, 1921, p 277).

Nineteenth-century physicians used the root of the raspberry or black- berry, Rubus 
species, as an astringent in diarrhea, cholera infantum, and chronic dysentery. The 
root, combined with goldthread, Coptis trifolia (L.) Salis., and boiled into a strong 
tea, was a "remedy for throat, mouth, and stomach cankers, and provided much relief from
gravel and dysentery" (Boylard et al., 1981, p 129).

The fruit of the red raspberry was officially listed in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia form 1882
to 1905 and in the National Formulary from 1916 to 1942. The juice was officially listed
in the National Formulary from 1942 to 1950 and has been listed in the U.S. 
Pharmacopoeia since 1950. It is used in the preparation of raspberry syrup, a 
pharmaceutical aide used to disguise the unpleasant taste of the other medicines.

The astringent property of the raspberry comes from the hydrolyzable tannin, containing 
both gallic and ellagic acids, and fillosin (ibid., p.130) Leaves of the red raspberry 
containing high levels of the vitamin C than do the fruits. Aqueous extracts of red 
raspberry leaves contain a smooth muscle stimulant, an anticholinesterase, and a 
spasmolytic (Trease and Evans, 1973, p 431). The American wild blackberry is more 
biologically active than the red raspberry cultivated in England.