Prunus emarginata, Prunus serotina, bitter cherry, choke cherry, (yes the cherries are quite bitter with an intriguing sweetness, almond, cherry taste Rosaceae (Rose family)
Wild Prunus choke cherry species are highly variable from place to place, and i'm sure there's a lot of communication via pollen in the cherry community. Botanists and books will often give various names to the same species, or different varieties at different locations. They are for our purposes useful the same, not the same as far as names, same with regard to herbal usage.
Yet there are some common characteristics, it's a small tree, with deciduous leaves, the bark has a distinct straight line light colored notching that circles the older branches and trunk looking like it was applied with a stencil. It tends to like water, here in a seep high on a mountain at 5000ft, though not always visible flowing water, although it can be in a riparian plant community. It tends to fall down and resprout where it touched down. It can form thickets. The leaves are opposite and can have tiny serrated edges or not even on the same tree.
Cherry bark has been used because, it has for most of us an intriguing inherently pleasant evocative fragrance, i haven't met anyone who doesn't like it but there probably are some. I believe it goes deep into the collective biospirit muscle memory of northern eurasian people's for whom cherry blossom fragrance signal the ending of winter, fertility, the increase in daylight and renewed abundance. The scent of bitter cherry bark is intense and resembles cherry almonds honey sweetness.
The scent is due partly to cyanogenic glycosides, hydrocyanic acids, coumarin and inherent flavonoids. Yes a cyanide compound that has a sedative quality that calms the cough reflex in aggressive nighttime coughs and cough formulas. It has been used for hundreds of generations and will continue to be used by those of use who do such things.
Personally i am here gathering wild cherry after fruiting, after first frost, which has occurred here at 5000 ft in northern mountains. This will vary from place to place. Basically gather in autumn fall, when the cherry fruit is red or purple black depending on species, not during early spring when in flower, some people wait until the leaves fall off. However i wouldn't hesitate to gather wild cherry in the spring while in flower, using fresh bark, leaf and flower in roughly equal portions to utilize as a nervine, for use in anxiety and agitation as a specialized formula for sleep, and calmness. I guess everyone can chose what to worry about, and i chose not to worry about a plant that has been used for thousands of years by people wherever they lived. A fresh whole plant tincture of wild cherry is quite strong as a relaxant in agitated persons, and you don't need to use a lot, only 5-10 drops. It is useful to have a whole plant flower, leaf and bark available for situations of out of control emotions crying, sobbing, and the like. You'll have to decide if you're up for using something like that. Other people will of course disagree and that's fine as far as i'm concerned. Wild cherry is safe and as a specialized limited batch type of thing for extreme coughing fits and high levels of anxiety it's useful to have on hand when these situations arise. Rather than pop a xanax or benzo, ritalin or amphetamine salts for children and that sort of thing, highly addictive substances, i feel wild cherry used in this way is harm reduction. Our bodies as biospirits have ingested rose family plants from beginningless time and have internal means of detoxifying these substances in our biospiritual memory rather than say a benzo. Again if you're on this path then you're going to gravitate towards it.
Utilize small straight branches pruning at the point where the beach meets the trunk stem. Then peel off the bark, sometimes in a straight branch you can make a cut length wise and peel off the bark in one piece or in long wider strips, which is good if you are drying the bark as this way it will last longer without losing its aromatic quality. It's a good idea if making tincture to make a straight fresh plant tincture FPT 1:2, or DPT 1:5 50% of wild cherry bark and add 10% glycerine so tannins don't compete for the medicinal constituents. It's also best to make a make a straight cherry tincture with 10% glycerine, then add cherry to formula rather than mixing all the herbs and roots together in one jar. This way you can make a formula by adding the various root, bark, leaf tinctures together in small batches and avoid making a big batch of limited use formula or making a failed formula that you can't salvage.
Utilize small straight branches pruning at the point where the beach meets the trunk stem. Then peel off the bark, sometimes in a straight branch you can make a cut length wise and peel off the bark in one piece or in long wider strips, which is good if you are drying the bark as this way it will last longer without losing its aromatic quality. It's a good idea if making tincture to make a straight fresh plant tincture FPT 1:2, or DPT 1:5 50% of wild cherry bark and add 10% glycerine so tannins don't compete for the medicinal constituents. It's also best to make a make a straight cherry tincture with 10% glycerine, then add cherry to formula rather than mixing all the herbs and roots together in one jar. This way you can make a formula by adding the various root, bark, leaf tinctures together in small batches and avoid making a big batch of limited use formula or making a failed formula that you can't salvage.
Prunus spp has cardio reductive relaxing qualities for rapid pulse which accompanies acute lung congestion and coughing fits. In a cough formula it can be combined with an aromatic antimicrobial Ligusticum Tishwoof, Abies grandis, pine resin, balsalm root, angelica, grindelia, sweetened with honey, or sweet root, licorice.
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| Tishwoof osha root |
A good strong wild cherry tincture can be added in small amounts like sweet root, licorice, angelica to sweeten formulas taste. Although you have to be careful because some flavors can get heightened by this mixing, for instance Larrea tridentata is Larrea tridentata and no mixing is going to lessen its inherent taste.
Prunus serotina, the wild cherry of the western mountains, is a valuable part of my Materia Medica. Prunus serotina refers to ‘prunus’ the greek word ‘prunos’-plum or cherry and ‘serotina’ the latin word ‘serus’- late maturing fruit. Ironically it blooms in early spring in the mountains of the south west. It is found in wet moist north facing canyons. It has striking beautiful flower and adorns the tree conspicuously with white dreamy blossoms.
Prunus serotina is a member of the Rose or Rosaceae family. In the southwest US it is often straggly and srubby, with deciduous leaves bright green above, when the leaves are crushed it has a distinctive ‘almond’ fragrance with a hint of cherry. When the tree is crowded it can grow tall and slender with a short life span. The leaves have a ponted tip, finely serrated, alternate, simple. The flowers are showy and move fast in the spring, occurring before the leaves have grown to full size. They are white on a extended raceme and are so fragrant you can sometimes smell the fragrance wafting on the wind before sighting the tree. The bark is distinctive, when young there are small arcs of grey circling the diameter of the smooth shiny trunk. When older the bark takes on a mottled grey rough exterior, looking very different than the smooth bark of younger spindly trees.
It occurs in North America widely in the eastern states. I have walked through the extensive distinctive deciduous forests with maple in the Alleghey mountains in western Pennsylvania. There in Pennsylvania it presents as a large great tree of dimension and size. In the western region of Arizona and New Mexico, it is a mid- to higher elevation shrub to small tree, ocassionaly getting to size but rare to see. Often found in shady canyons with Quercus (oaks) in moist riparian zones.
The bark of wild cherry was listed in the US Pharmacopeia from 1820- 1970. It was used extensively by Native North American people across the range of its growth. The early pioneers learning and interacting with these people likewise prized wild cherry bark for coughs and as a mild sedative. It has an uninterrupted use by folk herbalists, such as myself into the present day.
The familiar taste and flavor of wild cherry bark is used in the familiar cough drops and cough syrup. Dr DeWitt’s cough and cold syrup from 1930 contained horehound, tar, wild cherry, glycerine, alcohol 5%, and gum Arabic. It was marketed by W J Parker Company. Smith Brothers developed a similar cherry cough drop in 1928, the original flavor although secret, had a high licorice extract content. In addition to being the active ingredient cherry bark also took on a dubious role in disguising a wide range of ingredients from, laudanum, a liquid opiod to codeine, heroin and cocaine in patent medicines in the early part of the 20th century.
The bark of Prunus serotina contains a wide range of active medicinal chemicals including: Amygdalin: anti-inflammatory, antitussive, anti spasmodic, expectorant
Gallic acid: analgesic, anti flu, astringent, Bronchodilator
Prunasin:cyanogenic, aldose reductase inhibitor, uterosedative, bronchorelaxant
Scopolletin: anti asthmatic, cns-stimulant,
Tannin: hepatoprotective, antiviral, anticancer,
Dr Duke’s Phytochemical and ethnobotanical database
https://phytochem.nal.usda.gov/phytochem/plants/show/1597#act-42946-close
Cherry in Herbal lore
“The cherry as a single image was frequently the love-cherry;as such it survives today in American slang as ‘the maidenhead’ . Erotic connotation was there for the makar to use if he wished. But the cherry was heavenly fruit. It was the object of craving in the Mother of God before Christ was born-in the well known ‘Cherry tree Carol’ that is a variation on the early legend of Mary and the date palm on the flight to Egypt…There was that in the nature of the cherry, the white and red of it’s flesh and juice, that could eloquently figure the body and blood of Christ, of the sacrament.”
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Song, Dance and Poetry of the Court of Scotland Under King James VI By Helena Mennnie Shire, Cambridge University Press, 2010
“I suppose there
are few but know this tree, for its fruit's sake; and therefore I shall spare
writing a description thereof.
Place : For the
place of its growth, it is afforded room in every orchard.
Government and virtues : It is a
tree of Venus. Cherries, as they are of different tastes, so they are of
different qualities. The sweet pass through the stomach and the belly more
speedily, but are of little nourishment; the tart or sour are more pleasing to
an hot stomach, procure appetite to meat, to help and cut tough phlegm, and
gross humours; but when these are dried, they are more binding to the belly than
when they are fresh, being cooling in hot diseases, and welcome to the stomach,
and provokes urine. The gum of the Cherry-tree, desolved in wine is good for a
cold, cough, and hoarseness of the throat; mends the colour in the face,
sharpens the eyesight, provokes appetite, and helps to break and expel the
stone, and dissolved, the water thereof is much used to break the stone, and to
expel gravel and wind.”
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Nicholas Culpepper The Complete Herbal 1653
Sir Cleges was a knight of the round table. The story of Sir Cleges, translated by Jessie L Weston, 2000, Sir Cleges through his generosity and gifting to the less fortunate became poor. Gradually after a time living in poverty he was forgotten by those to whom his generosity shined and by and by he was left uninvited to the King Uther Pendragon’s palace and court. Uther Pendragon, the father of King Authur was having a feast at Christmastide. Sir Cleges was again univited and forgotten. Not without gifts he took comfort from his ever faithful, loving wife Dame Clarys. Sir Cleges as a devout Christian had pledged his feal loyality both to King Pendragon and the Queen of Heaven, the Most Blessed Virgin.
"Dear God,” quoth he, “what manner of berry may this be that grows at this time of the year? At this season I know not that any tree should bear fruit.”” Sir Cleges presented the cherries to his wife in gratitude for comforting him and then decided to take them to the King Pendragon, father of King Arthur. After first being rejected by the keepers of the court he persevered and was able to present them to the king. The king rewarded Sir Cleges with gifts and a return of his prestige among his peers with a place in the court.
American Eclectics and wild Cherry Bark:
Within the American Eclectics, cherry bark was esteemed as a complex remedy with a wide variety of application, in the American Eclectic practice of Medicine, Volume 2, by Ichabod Gibson Jones, 1858. “
“I have also usually administered at the same time tablespoonful doses, two or three times a day, of a decoction of wild-cherry bark and sanguinaria, which, in cases connected with debility of the stomach, will rarely fail to produce highly beneficial effects, and should be continued for some time after the healthy secretion of the liver has been restored. Its action upon the biliary secretion obviates the necessity for constantly resorting to cathartics, and it should never be neglected except in those cases presenting evidence of gastric irritation, when the blood-root should be omitted and the cherry bark be given alone.”
Ichabod Jones was writing here of cherry bark given as a treatment for jaundice and a stuck liver. Another Eclectic formula using wild cherry bark, this one from Lorenzo ElbridgeJ ones, The American Eclectic Materia Medica, 1863, was to combine Berberis bark, Aspen bark and wild cherry bark.” Infuse Barberry bark, Wild-cherry bark and American Aspen, four ounces of each, in one gallon of cider for forty-eight hours in a covered vessel, maintaining a gentle heat: one gill may be taken four or five times daily, in jaundice and torpid states of the liver.”
Prunus serotina bark is not used much now for jaundice or liver issues. Yet these 19th century eclectic’s use of it in this way bears careful consideration for the modern herbalist.
Ichabod Jones, describes Prunus Spp bark as ‘aromatic tonic, astringent and sedative.’ Both indicated in irritable stomach and nervous system. In addition he describes it for uses in chronic bronchitis, phithisis which is an old term for tuberculosis. Frequently with what we would now call ‘shortness of breath’, as occurs in COPD and exacerbations of asthma, and influenza there is anxiety.
Wild cherry bark is useful then as now in addressing anxiety connected to breathing. Wild cherry extract is a valuable ingredient in my materia medica. I wild craft it from the pristine moist mountains here in the southwest bioregion of mountains and Sky islands. I process it immediately in organic cane alcohol to preserve its medicinal aromatic properties. I offer it as a pure fresh plant tincture and in formulas.
It combines well with Aralia racemosa, spikenard, Osha, Ligusticum porteri, American Licorice, Glycyrrhiza lepidota, Monarda spp, Lomatium, Asclepias spp and other southwest bioregional respiratory herbs. In addition it lends itself to being an ally, not only for coughs and respiratory issues.
“Therapy—The tonic influence of this agent is more markedly apparent when it is administered in disease of the respiratory apparatus of a subacute or chronic character. It is not given during the active period of acute cases, but is of value during the period of convalescence. It is a common remedy in the treatment of chronic coughs, especially those accompanied with excessive expectoration. It is valuable in whooping-cough. The syrup is used as a menstruum for the administration of other remedies in this disease. It is excellent also in reflex cough—the cough of nervous patients without apparent cause. The syrup may be used persistently in phthisis, for the administration of many other agents which seem to be indicated during the course of the disease. Wild cherry is popular in the treatment of mild cases of palpitation, especially those of a functional character, or from reflex causes. Palpitation from disturbed conditions of the stomach is directly relieved by it. It is said to have a direct tonic influence upon the heart when the muscular structure of that organ is greatly weakened, where there is dilatation or valvular insufficiency, especially if induced by prolonged gastric or pulmonary disease.”
–John Uri Lloyd
Prunus serotina resonates deep into the body energizing the largest gland in the body, the liver. Especially in terms of torpor and stagnation. It’s interesting to see herbalists today describe cherry bark almost exclusively for cough and respiratory issues. Both the eclectic physicians acknowledge this use yet acknowledge its use internally not connected with cough. Perhaps the best way of describing these broader range of uses is the description of wild cherry bark as a blood purifyer and tonic. Native American tribes also used the bark topically for sores, internally for diarrhea and digestive issues and for ‘old’ coughs, and during the first stages of a woman’s labor. The eclectic physicians of America felt strongly its use in jaundice/liver issues in addition to respiratory problems, along with cough and anxiety related to shortness of breath.
“As a remedy for dyspepsia it has many advocates. It is a tonic to the stomach improving digestion by stimulating the action of the gastric glands. It soothes irritability of the stomach from whatever cause. Although the properties of a nerve sedative are not ascribed to this agent, general nervous irritation is soothed by its administration, nervous irritability of the stomach and of the respiratory organs is allayed, and a tonic influence is imparted to the central nervous system.” –John Uri Lloyd
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American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy JOHN URI LLOYD, Ph.M, 1915
“The officinal portion is the bark, and that of the root should be preferred to that of the trunk and branches. It should be renewed annually, as its properties are much impaired by age and drying.” “Properties and Uses.—Wild-cherry bark has a tonic and stimulating influence on the digestive apparatus, and a simultaneous sedative action on the nervous system and circulation. It is, therefore, valuable in all those cases where it is desirable to give tone and strength to the system, without, at the same time, causing too great an action of the heart and blood vessels, as, during convalescence from pleurisy, pneumonia, acute hepatitis, and other inflammatory and febrile diseases. It is also useful in hectic fever, cough, colliquative diarrhea, some forms of dyspepsia, whooping-cough, irritability of the nervous system, etc., and has been found an excellent palliative in phthisis.”
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The American Dispensatory, By John King
“Prunus Virginiana— Pruni Virginianae—Wild Cherry. U. S. P. Origin.—The bark, collected in autumn, of Prunus serotina Ehr, a large forest tree indigenous in North America. Description and Properties.—It is met with in curved pieces or irregular fragments -fa inch (2 Mm.) or more thick; outer surface greenish-brown or yellowish-brown, smooth and somewhat glossy, marked with transverse scars. If the bark is collected from the old wood and deprived of the corky layer, the outer surface is nut-brown and uneven; inner surface somewhat striate or fissured. Upon maceration in water it develops a distinct bitter-almond odor. Taste astringent, aromatic, and bitter. It contains a volatile oil, hydrocyanic acid, tannin, a bitter glucoside, resin, etc. Dose.—i-i drachm (2.0-4.0 Gm.).”
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A TEXT-BOOK MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND PHARMACOLOGY. GEORGE FRANK BUTLER, Ph.g.. M.D., , 1896
“The cherry as a single image was frequently the love-cherry;as such it survives today in American slang as ‘the maidenhead’ . Erotic connotation was there for the makar to use if he wished. But the cherry was heavenly fruit. It was the object of craving in the Mother of God before Christ was born-in the well known ‘Cherry tree Carol’ that is a variation on the early legend of Mary and the date palm on the flight to Egypt…There was that in the nature of the cherry, the white and red of it’s flesh and juice, that could eloquently figure the body and blood of Christ, of the sacrament.”
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Song, Dance and Poetry of the Court of Scotland Under King James VI By Helena Mennnie Shire, Cambridge University Press, 2010
“I have also usually administered at the same time tablespoonful doses, two or three times a day, of a decoction of wild-cherry bark and sanguinaria, which, in cases connected with debility of the stomach, will rarely fail to produce highly beneficial effects, and should be continued for some time after the healthy secretion of the liver has been restored. Its action upon the biliary secretion obviates the necessity for constantly resorting to cathartics, and it should never be neglected except in those cases presenting evidence of gastric irritation, when the blood-root should be omitted and the cherry bark be given alone.”
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American Eclectic practice of Medicine, Volume 2, by Ichabod Gibson Jones, 1858
Felter, H. W. The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, J.K. Scudder, 1922 -Quote The American Eclectic Materia Medica, by Lorenzo Elbridge Jones, 1863 “Infuse Barberry bark, Wild-cherry bark and American Aspen, four ounces of each, in one gallon of cider for forty-eight hours in a covered ves- sel, maintaining a gentle heat: one gill may be taken four or five times daily, in jaundice and torpid states of the liver.”
References
A TEXT-BOOK MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND PHARMACOLOGY. GEORGE FRANK BUTLER, Ph.g.. M.D., , 1896.
American Eclectic Practice of Medicine, Volume 2, by Ichabod Gibson Jones, 1858.
American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy JOHN URI LLOYD, Ph.M, 1915.
"BRIT - Native American Ethnobotany Database." BRIT - Native American Ethnobotany Database. Accessed September 29, 2016. http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=Prunus serotina.
By William and Robert Whistlecraft, of Stowmarket, in Suffolk, Harness and Collar-Makers. Intended to Comprise the Most Interesting Particulars Relating to King Arthur and His Round Table. Bath: H. E. Carrington, 1842.
"Post-Medieval Arthurian Literature in English (Other than Fiction): A Preliminary Bibliography | Robbins Library Digital Projects." Post-Medieval Arthurian Literature in English (Other than Fiction): A Preliminary Bibliography | Robbins Library Digital Projects. Accessed September 29, 2016.
http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/lupack-post-medieval-arthurian-literature.
Culpeper, Nicholas. The English Physician Enlarged: With Three
Hundred and Sixty-nine Medicines, Made of English Herbs, That Were Not in Any
Impression Until This. Being an Astrologo-physical Discourse of the Vulgar
Herbs of This Nation, ... By Nich. Culpepper. .. London: printed for W.
Baynes, 1799.
Mich. Conversations. Silver City, New Mexico, 2015. Field talk Michael Cottingham, Voyage Botanical Herbal Medicine Program
Felter, H. W. The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, J.K. Shudder, 1922.
Charles W. Kane, Medicinal Plants Western Mountain States, Lincoln Town Press, 2017
Moore, Michael. Medicinal Plants Mountain West. 2012
Prunus Virginiana— Pruni Virginianae—Wild Cherry. U. S. P. Song,
Dance and Poetry of the Court of Scotland Under King James VI By Helena Mennnie Shire, Cambridge University Press, 2010. The American Eclectic Materia Medica, by Lorenzo Elbridge Jones, 1863.
