The hobby gardener should refrain from snacking on elderberries during the harvest, because raw the fruits are anything but digestible. You can find out here under which conditions they are transformed into healthy food.

Sambunigrin - Poison releases hydrocyanic acid

All parts of an elderberry plant contain the glycoside sambunigrin. Similar to deadly nightshade poison, it releases hydrocyanic acid. Anyone who eats elderberries raw often suffers from abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting.

Remedy by appropriate heating

It's a well-known fact that elderberries boiled down make a delicious jam or refreshing syrup. On the way there, the poison content is lost. As has been determined in tests, sambunigrin decomposes from a temperature of exactly 76.3 degrees Celsius. Here's how you should treat the fruit to be on the safe side:

  • only harvest fully ripe berries
  • Pick out individual unripe fruits from the umbels
  • carefully remove all stems
  • Cook for at least 20 minutes at more than 80 degrees Celsius

Freezing does not remove elderberry toxicity. There is nothing wrong with keeping the harvest in the freezer for a while. Before consumption, however, it must be heated according to the procedure described.

Stone the red elderberries

Raw red elderberries are poisonous as long as they still contain their seeds. Even the longest cooking doesn't change that. If you would like to integrate the red fruits into your diet, you cannot avoid a laborious pitting.

tips and tricks

As a relic from the old days, the old German term 'Fliederbeere' for elderberries has survived to this day. Contrary to popular belief, however, from a botanical point of view, an elderberry and a lilac have nothing in common.

GTH

Category:

Vegetable garden