Elderberry Wine and Syrup--Halt Influenza Viruses
The Elder Tree has a traditional and diverse history, but healers have always known it. “Shebolith Says…Some of the wine spoken of in the Bible can only be Black Elderberry Wine.” It is a fact that there are recipes for elderberry-based medications in the records dating as far back as Ancient Egypt.
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From Greece, Hippocrates described the black elderberry as his medicine chest for the plethora of ailments it seemed to cure. He treated his patients for colds, flu, fever, burns and cuts as well as other maladies.
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“If the medicinal properties of its leaves, bark, and berries were fully known, I cannot tell what our countryman could ail for which he might not fetch a remedy from the elderberry, either for sickness or wounds,” said a British researcher, John Evelyn, who published these words in the 17th Century.
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German physician R.F. Weiss attested to this “spring tonic” action and says, “The resistance-enhancing action does indeed come into play.” He lists elderberry in his medical textbook as a treatment for colds and flu (Weiss 1988.)
The berries make an excellent homemade wine and winter cordial that improve with age. The wine taken hot with sugar, just before going to bed, is an old-fashioned and well-established cure for a cold.
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Elder leaves and buds are two, ingredients used in drinks, poultices and ointments. The elderberry flowers have been traditionally used to make teas for colds and sore throats, taken hot before bed. A cup will usually induce perspiration.
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The tea, taken cold daily is an historical spring medicine and a blood purifier
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Some traditional uses of black elderberry are arthritis, blood purifier, bronchitis, skin ulcers, colds, diaphoretic, diuretic, flu, gout, nasal catarrh, rheumatoid arthritis, sciatica, sore throat and a spring tonic.
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The elderberry as described in Epicurious, (http://www.epicurious.com/tools/fooddictionary/entry?id=2412) is a purple-black, tart fruit that grows on the elder tree. Elder tree’s creamy, white elderberry flowers can be added to salads or batter-dipped and fried like fritters.
One of Many Elderberry Wine Recipes
5 lbs elderberries stripped from their stems
1-gallon boiling water
3 lbs. granulated sugar
1 packet wine yeast
1 cup chopped raisins
½ cup lemon juice
½ cup orange juice
1-teaspoon yeast nutrient
Place elderberries into a large plastic or crock fermentation container. Add raisins, lemon and orange juices, and 1 teaspoon yeast nutrient. Pour boiling water into container and stir. When cool, squeeze mixture to release juices. Let sit for 24 hours. Add 2 lbs sugar and the wine yeast packet. Stir and cover. Let sit for 3 to 5 days. Strain liquid into a glass or crock fermentation container and add remaining 1 lbs of sugar. Stir. Let ferment in dark, warm location for 1 week. Strain into another glass container and let sit for another 6 weeks. into wine bottles and seal. Wine will be ready for consumption in 6 months.
Old-Fashioned Black Elderberry Syrup
Place 1/2 cup dried, black elder berries or 1-cup fresh black elder berries and 2 cups water in a pan, bring to boil and let simmer (uncovered) for about 20 minutes. Reduce by half and pour through a mesh strainer. Use the back of a spoon to squeeze out any juice left in the berries. Let it cool a little; then add one-cup honey and stir well.
Add spice to the simmering berries and water; 1/2 tsp. of grated ginger, 1 cinnamon stick or a few whole cloves will give your syrup even more healing properties. Refrigerate in a storage jar for up to two weeks.
Shebolith Says…remember the old adage, “Everything in moderation.”
Buy dried elderberries http://www.nutsonline.com/driedfruit/elderberries/simply.html
Elderberry Is Effective Against Eight Different Influenza Viruses
[Elderberry has been proven effective against eight different influenza viruses. This may solve the perennial problem of the “mutating flu.” Viruses have the ability to alter their genetics and create new strains. This makes a problem for creating vaccines against viral diseases, such as flu or AIDS, because the vaccine can only be developed against known strains. The host remains unprotected against newly evolved forms of the virus. With the flu virus, the new evolving forms can sometimes be deadly as especially virulent strains develop periodically. We have not had an outbreak of deadly flu in recent decades; so many people do not realize how serious the illness can be. One strain killed more than 100,000,000 people worldwide in the second decade of this century — that is more than have died in all the 20th century wars put together. Some epidemiologists have pointed out in recent years that we are overdue for another deadly flu epidemic, which reoccur, like earthquakes, at regular but not necessarily predictable intervals. Vaccines will be of no use against a new strain, at least when it initially appears. Elder may thus be able to literally save lives, because most strains of the virus use the same enzyme mechanism to penetrate cells. Elder preparations may be superior to flu shots for another reason: 50% of people who get the vaccines report side effects (Zakay-Rones 1995; Mumcuoglu 1995).]
http://medherb.com/Materia_Medica/Sambucus_-_Elderberry_%28Sambucus_nigra,_canadensis%29.htm
What is flu pandemic?
It is the arrival in a population of an unexpected virus, a virulent virus capable of causing substantial morbidity and mortality. A pandemic is a virus’s first exposure to the human population.
In the United States three rather large pandemics of unusual flu strains have occurred. The first struck in 1918 and is known as the Spanish Flu. It killed between 30 and 40 million people. The second outbreak of flu virus occurred in 1957, it was called the Asian Flu. The Hong Kong Flu of 1968 killed 36,000 people worldwide. In 1997, an Avian flu virus jumped from poultry to people living in Hong Kong causing eighteen people to be sickened and six died. This virus was not able to spread from person to person. More than 1.3 million chickens, ducks, geese and pigeons were killed to stop the spread of the virus.
The United States has been preparing for an influenza pandemic since the late 1970’s. In an average flu season, there are reports of more than 20,000 influenza deaths. A pandemic could cause five times as many.
Nancy Cox, chief of the influenza branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that the key to stopping a pandemic is identifying the strain and creating a vaccine. Influenza preparedness is linked to the CDC’s Healthy People 2010 program.
It is claimed that we must create a need for vaccines by convincing the public to participate in national vaccine trials. Currently, the figure for those participating over the age of 65 is at 67 percent, while those under 65 get vaccinated at a rate of 60 percent... The goal set at this time is to vaccinate 90 percent of people over 65 years of age. Increased use means manufacturers are more likely to produce more of the vaccines.
What are the symptoms of influenza?
Symptoms will include cough - initially nonproductive, - later, producing purulent sputum. There will be marked cyanosis and difficulty in breathing. Other symptoms include; high fever, chills, substernal pain and discomfort, frontal headache and myalgia. http://www.med-help.net/Flu.htm
Definitions
Purulent sputum - A mixture of saliva and pus-filled mucus or phlegm coughed up from the respiratory tract and usually ejected from the mouth.
Cyanosis - A bluish color of the skin and mucous membranes resulting from inadequate oxygenation of the blood.
Substernal - below the sternum or breastbone.
Myalgia - muscle pain. There are many specific causes of various types of myalgia. It can be temporary or chronic. Myalgia can be a result of a virus infection. Epidemic myalgia, also known as Bornholm disease, is an acute viral infection that runs in epidemics and, among other things, produces marked muscle pain.
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