Ebulus, Dwarf Elder

Danewort, Helion
 Picture Picture
Picture Herbarius latinus, Petri, 1485

Picture Picture
Dioscorides Materia Medica, Mathias, 1563

 English Botany, Vol VII, Smith, 1798
Picture Icones Plantarum Medcio-oeconomico, Vietz, 1800

Botanical name:


Sambucus ebulus

Parts used:


Flower; Leaf; Berry; Inward bark; Seed

Temperature & Taste:


Warm, dry

Classifications:


2F. PURIFYING
3M. ARTHRITICS
4f. SPLENETIC    4k. ARTHRITIC

Uses:


Flowers:
-promote Sweat; generally used as Elder flowers
-used for Inflammation and Erysipelas

Leaves:
-used similarly to the Flowers
-used for Gout and Arthritic pains
-also for Watery Tumours, Edema and and watery Ruptures (Hernias).

Berries:
-used for Edema, Cachexia
-strangulation of the Uterus
-promotes Sweat

Inward Bark:
-Heats and dries; discusses, softens
-purges water from the whole body
-used as the flowers for Inflammation and Erysipelas.

Seed and Root:
-used to purge Water in Edema, Gout, and other diseases from Water
-promotes Menstruation
-Arthritis, Sciatica, Rheumatism
-has been recommended for Diabetes


Dose:


Whole Herb Decocted in Wine: 5–8 oz. of the decoction for Fever, Cachexia, Edema, Scrofula etc.
Root or Seed in Powder: 1–3 grams in wine
Of the Juice: 2–4 spoonfuls in wine as a Phlegm purgative

Comment:


1. Dwarf Elder is generally used as for Elder; however, it is stronger for all intended purposes.
2. Bark, then Root and Seed are strongest, Leaves are next in strength, while the berries are weakest of all.

Substitute:


1. Elder was used as a substitute, leaf for leaf, bark for bark, flower for flower. ‘Danewort and Elder may differ in size but they are similar in their leaves, flower, and seed, and they have almost the same properties’. (Galen)

Main Combinations:


Often combined with Ground Pine for Arthritic disease.

1. Joint Pain, Arthritis, Sciatica:
i. Dwarf Elder, Ground Pine, Cinnamon, decocted in wine
ii. Dwarf Elder, Ground Pine, Celery seed, Rhubarb
2. Kneipps Water Search Tea:  Dwarf Elder with Sassafras, Rosemary, Rosehip, Nettle, Horsetail, Juniper, Rue, Mistletoe, Sandalwood, Trifolium
3. Kneipps Blood Purification Tea: Dwarf Elder root with Elder flower, Sandalwood, Mistletoe, Nettle, Strawberry leaf, Sloe flowers, Juniper shoots
4. Cataplasm for Swelling of the Breast from obstructed Milk: Dawrf Elder with Marrubium, Poppy leaf, Wormwood, Rue, Dodder, apply warm
5. Joint pain, apply Camomile, Primula and Dwarf Elder (Arnold de Villa Nova)

Cautions:


1. Avoid overdose. Overdose may cause nausea, vomiting, headache, bloody diarrhea, coma.
2. Avoid in Pregnancy.

Main Preparations used:


Distilled Water of the Flowers, Spirit of the Flowers, Pulp of the Berries, Tincture or Essence of the Berries
  • Extra Info
  • History
Pliny on Elder and Dwarf Elder:
‘There are two kinds of elder, one of which grows wild and is much smaller than the other; by the Greeks it is known as the “chamaeacte,” or “helion.” A decoction of the leaves, seed, or root of either kind, taken in doses of two cyathi, in old wine, though bad for the upper regions of the stomach, carries off all aqueous humours by stool. This decoction is very cooling too for inflammations, those attendant upon recent burns inp articular. A poultice is made also of the more tender leaves, mixed with polenta, for bites inflicted by dogs. The juice of the elder, used as a fomentation, reduces abscesses of the brain, and more particularly of the membrane which envelopes that organ. The berries, which have not so powerful an action as the other parts of the tree, stain the hair. Taken in doses of one acetabulum, in drink, they are diuretic. The softer leaves are eaten with oil and salt, to carry off pituitous and bilious secretions.
‘The smaller kind is for all these purposes the more efficacious of the two. A decoction of the root in wine, taken in doses of two cyathi, brings away the water in dropsy, and acts emolliently upon the uterus : the same effects are produced also by a sitting-bath made of a decoction of the leaves. The tender shoots of the cultivated kind, boiled in a saucepan and eaten as food, have a purgative effect : the leaves taken in wine, neutralize the venom of serpents. An application of the young shoots, mixed with he-goat suet, is remarkably good for gout; and if they are macerated in water, the infusion will destroy fleas. If a decoction of the leaves is sprinkled about a place, it will exterminate flies. “Boa” is the name given to a malady which appears in the form of red pimples upon the body; for its cure the patient is scourged with a branch of elder. The inner bark, pounded and taken with white wine, relaxes the bowels.’ (The Natural History of Pliny, trans. by Bostock and Riley, Vol. 5, 1856)