Elderberry toxicity and tinctures (medicinal herbs forum at permies) (2024)

It should be noted that you hear a lot about how toxic other parts of elder are, but there is only one official case of food poisoning by elderberry in US history and that was with a group of people who gathered large amounts of elderberries, stems, branches and leaves and crushed them into a juice that they then served raw during a multi-day religious gathering in the California mountains many years ago. Even in that case (where some folks were hospitalized) everybody fully recovered very quickly.

The reports that I've read of stomach aches and diarrhea have dealt with the berries, not other parts. You absolutely can get stomach aches and diarrhea from eating raw elderberries. You also may not, but I personally wouldn't chance it since raw elderberries don't taste that great anyway and the best ways to use them are other ways. There are also anecdotal stories of children who got sick making pea shooters out of hollowed elderberry sticks, though they have also been used traditionally for flutes for many years after they were dried. I've never found a confirmed case of anybody being sickened by using elder branches in this way but stories from "the old days" are plentiful.

You also hear a lot about the toxicity of red elderberries. The USDA warns not to eat *raw* red elderberries, but they were traditionally used as both food and medicine for some Native American tribes. There are some folks online who have experimented with making things like red elderberry fruit leather but the main drawback of red elderberry is that it just doesn't taste good. But yes, even more caution should be taken not to eat those raw.

You do not need to worry about tiny bits of stem that are in your elderberries if you'll be cooking them or using them in tinctures. It is nearly impossible to get every tiny bit and it's not necessary. People have been cooking elderberry pies and making elderberry syrup, tincture, wine, etc. for centuries and it is generally accepted that there will be some tiny bits of stem in elderberries you use for cooking, wine making, medicine or other uses. Even dried elderberries from respected herbal companies like Mountain Rose Herbs will contain small bits of stem. This is fine.

You hear a lot that the best way to de-stem elderberries is to freeze them and then knock off the berries. We've found that this results in more stems (and mess) in your berries. We have the best results simply raking them with a fork or even wide mouthed comb (see the photo below of our youngest daughter, Fiona, using a fork to destem elderberries a few years ago). We then spread them on a cookie sheet and give it a little shake to spread them evenly, and press a finger onto the bits of stem on the cookie sheet to lift them up and get them out. Tiny bits of stem are left unless we're making pies of muffins, in which case I work at it a bit longer just for aesthetic reasons (nobody wants a chunk of elderberry stem in their pie). Flash freeze on cookie sheets for a few hours and then bag them up if you're using them for baking, so you have single frozen elderberries that are easy to scoop out. When you bag them up, you can do another little shake and more stems will have stuck to the pan. When making juice (covered in water and simmered and strained), you can worry less about bits of stem. There are many ways to dry them (too many to list right now) but again, just remove the larger bits of stem.

I got into more detail about elderberry toxicity and ways of preserving (freezing, drying, dehydrating, canning, juicing, etc.) and de-stemming them in my elderberry book (affiliate link), along with 70+ recipes for medicinal remedies, baked goods, wine and liqueurs, jellies, desserts, etc. for elderberries and elder flowers. But the bottom line is that you don't have to overly worry about tiny bits of stem. :)

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