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Showing posts with the label sambucus racermosa

Elderberries are Flu-Fighters (New Study)

One summer day a few years ago our younger son pointed out various exotic trees as we walked around our neighborhood.  One with clumps of  luscious blue-black berries caught my eye.  Black Elderberry.  I asked if the berries were edible, and he said they were.  And the black elderberry ( Sambucus racermosa ssp pubens var melanocarpa ) is native to our Vancouver Island.  As someone wanting to grow only native trees in my yard, I have the ethical go-ahead. (To read about why we should grow native trees if we grow trees, see this article about botanist Diana Beresford-Kroeger.) And... did the berries not have some medicinal benefits? I wondered aloud.  He told me that indeed elderberries were noteworthy for staving off and remedying colds  coughs, sore throats and flu.  Customers' Most-Loved Gifts Click to learn more...  A New Study  from the University of Sydney, Australia, published in 2019 in the Journal of Functional Foods...  shows that this amazing berry contains phyt