Wild cherry

Prunus serotina

Also: Black cherry, Wild black cherry, Rum cherry

CoolingMoisteningRelaxing

Quiets a dry, racking cough without shutting it down.

A tall native cherry with dark, flaky bark that smells of bitter almonds when scraped, and drooping strings of small black fruit. Wild cherry bark relaxes spasm in the airways and cools an inflamed chest, calming a dry, racking cough while the lungs keep clearing.

Energetics: Cooling, moistening, relaxing
Taste: Bitter, sweet, almond-like
Family: Rosaceae (rose family)
Parts used: Inner bark

Medicinal uses 3

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Traditional useLab and mechanism studiesClinical studies

Dry coughTLC
Relaxes the spasm behind a dry, racking, unproductive cough, especially when the chest feels hot and tight.
Wet cough & congestionTLC
Loosens and moves mucus while it settles the urge to cough.
Indigestion & bloatingTLC
A gentle bitter astringent that tones a weak stomach.

Preparations

Cool infusions, honey cough syrups, and tincture.

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Cautions

Keep to standard doses and short courses; its cyanide-forming compounds are harmless at these amounts but add up with large doses.
Large doses taken over time can slow the heart rate.
A cough with fever, shortness of breath, or blood, or one lasting more than three weeks, needs a medical look.

Medication interactions

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Pregnancy & breastfeeding

PregnancyAvoid

Its cyanide-forming compounds, harmless at cough doses for most adults, keep wild cherry out of pregnancy; gentler cough herbs do the job.

BreastfeedingAvoid

Its cyanide-forming compounds could reach a nursing baby, so it waits until after weaning.

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Folklore

Prunus serotina means the late plum, for its habit of flowering after other cherries. Settlers steeped the fruit in rum or brandy for cherry bounce, which gave it the name rum cherry, and its reddish heartwood, darkening with age, became prized American cabinet wood. Syrup of wild cherry bark sat on American pharmacy shelves as a cough remedy for well over a century.

How to grow

A fast-growing native tree for sun and well-drained soil, reaching 50 to 80 feet. Gather bark in autumn from young branches, scrape off the thin outer layer, and dry the green inner bark. Wilted cherry leaves poison livestock, so keep cut branches out of pastures.

In the wild

Woods, fencerows, and old fields across eastern North America, from Nova Scotia to Florida and west to the Great Plains, with populations south into Mexico and Central America. Birds spread its seeds, and it has become invasive in parts of Europe.

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