Defying Conventional Wisdom, or, Drinking Cherry Leaf Tea

[Bear_Medicine]

Please note that my post below is not encouraging anyone else to follow my example at this point. I'm just reporting my experience and asking for any feedback that might pertain to my little experiment.

So, we're all used to reading the repeated warnings in herb book "cherry leaves are extremely toxic" over and over again. Some sources have the good sense to be more specific, saying "wilted cherry leaves are toxic" but most just thoroughly condemn the leaf across the board.

I've been using a mix of chokecherry flower, bark and leaf for a while now to good effect, although admittedly in fairly small doses (typical for peach as well). Recently, because I enjoy peach leaf tea so much and because I can't always get to my peach tree (on a friend's land) I thought I would try Cherry instead. I started with the twigs, which are indeed very yummy as a beverage tea - floral and more delicate than peach, though not terribly strong this time of year. But the twigs take a while to gather right now with all those leaves on there, so I began to contemplate the forbidden: cherry leaf tea.

The leaves smell ~great~ euphoric even. Hmm, said I and brought home some fresh leaves. I didn't get around to making tea til about eight hours later when they were slightly wilted. I made a strong tea with a small handful of leaves and a bit of twig. It smelled absolutely amazing, it was definitely calming aromatherapy in a cup! I still kind of expected the tea to be super astringent or bitter, but no, it was moderately astringent (less than rose, more than peach) but primarily aromatic. SO yum! With a tiny bit of honey and cream, it was so yummy I drank the whole thing in less than ten minutes. Which made me sleepy, as Cherry has a tendency to do, I felt my heart rate slow a little (again, typical of Cherry, Hawthorn and some other Rose family plants), my breathing felt really deep and my belly (previously annoyed with me for some dietary indiscretion) was noticeably calmed. No signs of cyanide poisoining ensued - no dilated eyes, headache, agitation, trembling etc., or even milder signs like nausea.

Subsequent beverage strength teas have yielded the same effects: relaxation, slowed, strengthened heartbeat, improved digestion and lessened anxiety. Kind of what you would expect from most rose family medicines, yes?

In the ethnobotanical literature, there are very few references to using the leaf as medicine, though a few tribes did use it along with the bark for their medicines and the navajo were known to use it as an emetic in large doses (probably a really bad idea).

I don't find any modern references to leaf use, and in fact, pretty much all of my books that list cherry also list the leaf and fresh bark as toxic. Hell, Susun Weed even goes so far as to say that spring gathered bark and leaves are both very toxic (simply not true, as some indigenous peoples preferred spring bark, I use spring bark and Matthew Wood even suggests spring bark).

This led me to studying livestock poisoning from cherry (and other prunasin containing plants). My understanding from that research is that it is the wilted/fermented leaves or the ingestion of large amounts of just cherry by a hungry animal (without other forage choices, obviously) is what leads to problems. Here's a quote from http://www.vet.purdue.edu/toxic/plant46.htm

[shamana flora]

wow kiva thanks for doing that experimentation! I had always wondered about the leaves themselves, as it seemed such a waste to just discard them. Have you only used fresh or have you made tea with dried leaf too?

I probably wont run out and give cherry leaves to clients, but this is great info to have. I wonder if various cherry species would be stronger/more dangerous?
_________________
Medicine woman in the heart of the Sonoran Desert

Blue Turtle Botanicals
http://www.blueturtlebotanicals.com
http://desertmedicinewoman.blogspot.com/

[Bear_Medicine]

I hate discarding them too, it always makes me sad :(

The dried seem to work just fine as well.

Tommie Bass seemed to think that Black Cherry P. serotina was the strongest spp. but then, he only had the trees in his area to work with. Other than that, I don't know... I remember that the cherry trees we had back in PA (P. serotina) seemed to smell stronger than the ones here in NM (P. virginiana var. demissa), but it's been a while and that's a totally subjective observation.

Michael Moore, speaking of the bark says:

[crabapple]

[Bear_Medicine]

Great to hear, Rebecca. Have you mostly used it in tea, or other ways as well?
_________________
~*~ Kiva Rose
Anima Lifeways & Herbal School http://animacenter.org
Anima Healing Arts Health & Herbal Clinic:
http://animahealingarts.org
Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference: http://traditionsinwesternherbalism.org

[crabapple]

All sorts of ways. But mostly just tea, and in pickles to help retain crunch. (That's an old Appalachian tradition.)
_________________
Rebecca Hartman
Crabapple Herbs: http://crabappleherbs.com/
The Herbwife's Kitchen: http://crabappleherbs.com/blog/

[Bear_Medicine]

I'd heard old ladies back east talk about the pickles thing but never actually tried it. Interesting.
_________________
~*~ Kiva Rose
Anima Lifeways & Herbal School http://animacenter.org
Anima Healing Arts Health & Herbal Clinic:
http://animahealingarts.org
Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference: http://traditionsinwesternherbalism.org

[crabapple]

It works really well. Better than grape leaves, I think.
_________________
Rebecca Hartman
Crabapple Herbs: http://crabappleherbs.com/
The Herbwife's Kitchen: http://crabappleherbs.com/blog/

[Bear_Medicine]

Well, it seems to me after working with cherry leaves for a while now, that it really is a generally safe herb and definitely a very pleasant beverage. I haven't seen anything in even very large doses that concerns me so far, except I'm not sure it's safe to drive afterward, seeing as how sleepy it makes you.
_________________
~*~ Kiva Rose
Anima Lifeways & Herbal School http://animacenter.org
Anima Healing Arts Health & Herbal Clinic:
http://animahealingarts.org
Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference: http://traditionsinwesternherbalism.org

[eirmoon]

I had to reply and share my experience with the toxicity of cherry---

My sheep and goats LOVE cherry leaves. Even when there is plenty of sweet green grass/legume pasture all around and tasty tender oak leaves they seek out the cherry trees, standing on hind legs to eat the higher branches, and devour as much as they can with no ill effects so far. They even eat the dried brown leaves off the ground. They get more excited about cherry leaves than any other plant.

I was worried about them getting too much at first, but we have lots of beautiful cherry trees and it's not like I can be out there with them constantly keeping them from eating it, so I've just been trusting their superior judgment on the matter.

[Fairybekk]

I went and harvested a bunch of hollyleaf cherry (prunus ilicifolia) leaves, because they're abundant around here, and have experienced the same effects.
Calming;no death yet. Good news.

[jim mcdonald]

[Fairybekk]

So 3 leaves (hollyleaf cherry) in a cup of tea was enough to make me incredibly nauseous, breathing got quite shallow, and then I passed out.
I tried it on someone else (for experimentation purposes) and it didn't have that effect on him.

I also get drunk on 4oz beer so I might not be the best test subject for these things...

Are the flowers ever used medicinally?

[Bear_Medicine]

Wow, I've never seen that happen before, and I sure have given cherry tea to a lot of people now... esp with such a low dosage. Thanks for letting us know, I wonder if it has anything to do with the species as well.

And yes, I use the flowers all the time, see http://animacenter.org/prunus.html
_________________
~*~ Kiva Rose
Anima Lifeways & Herbal School http://animacenter.org
Anima Healing Arts Health & Herbal Clinic:
http://animahealingarts.org
Traditions in Western Herbalism Conference: http://traditionsinwesternherbalism.org

[Fairybekk]

Oh awesome. Thanks for that.

It could be the species-- I haven't tried any others for comparison, though I gave a friend the rest of my tea and he was fine.

When that happened I'd been out in the wilderness harvesting things all day so I was probably way more, um, open, than if I'd been sitting in LA traffic all day. I get really REALLY sensitive to things when I'm that open.

I was also totally fine when I woke up, so I think the knock-out factor is a good protection from any adverse effects-- I'd have had to force myself to drink anymore than I did.