Beat The Flu With
Elderberry Wine Or Liqueur
Several
different edible berries are proven to be good for your health. Elderberries
(Sambucus nigra) grow wild all over 
the
UK. Herbalists have long known and used the healing benefits of its
berries and flowers.
Scientific researchers have now discovered that elderberry extract is antiviral. It can cut short a bout of the flu. And even helps against HIV! It could prove just as effective against bird flu.
In one case, a woman, taking no HIV drugs, used an elderberry extract, called Sambucol, with olive leaf extract - another antiviral - and experienced a viral load drop from 17,000 to 4,000.
A theory is that elderberry disables viruses by staining and coating them.
Old
Tawny Port For Rheumatics
Around a century ago an American sailor told a Czech doctor that he
drank Old Tawny Port to relieve his rheumatics. He claimed it was the
finest treatment you could get. The doctor researched this claim. He
found that Port did nothing for rheumatics. But he learned that some
Port winemakers added elderberry juice to young Port to give it the
colour of Old Tawny Port, which sold for more. It was the elderberry
juice that eased the sailor's aches and pains.
You can pick elderflowers in June. Use them to make a tea or wine. Pick elderberries in the early autumn. For advice on using them visit your local home winemaking shop. Or search the Internet for elderbery wine recipes. If you don't want to pick your own berries you can buy dried ones at home winemaking suppliers, both on and offline. Or get an elderberry extract.
Just as you get the flavonoid resveratrol in red grape wine, that helps Mediterrnean peoples live longer, you get similar flavonoids in elderberry wine. When you make it from a recipe you need to let it mature for a long time because elderberries are high in tannin. Tannin in wine reduces with maturing.
Many
low price red winemaking kits contain elderberry juice instead of grape
juice. Just read the labels. Kit wines are easier to make and drink
young, than when you make them from the fresh ingredients. Whichever
- it's all good healthy stuff - in moderation.
Elderberry Gin, Rum Vodka Or Brandy
An easier way to get an alcohol extract of elderberries is to adapt
the old Sloe Gin liqueur recipe. Steep 1/2 lb elderberries in 1 pint
gin, white rum, vodka or brandy, with 4 oz sugar for 3 months - in a
jar that you can cover tightly. In that time the elderberries' properties
will have been absorbed into the alcohol. Then strain the berries out
of the liqueur. If you want to make larger quantities just multiply
it up.
A herbal tincture is made by steeping herbs in alcohol. The properties of the herbs pass into the alcohol. Then a few drops of the tincture in a drink of water or beverage provides a simple way of using the herb. It's also more easily absorbed by your body as a liquid than in tablet form. So the Sloe Gin adaptation will give you an 'elderberry tincture' as well as a very palatable liqueur.
It's up to you whether or not you eat the berries when you strain them out. They slip down very easily with cream or ice cream. A daily dose of the resulting elderberry gin, rum, voda or brandy liqueur, or elderberry wine, could see you sailing through the flu season without so much as a sniffle.
It could equally boost your defences against the anticipated Bird Flu pandemic, when and if it strikes. So it's worth your while making enough to keep some in stock for such a possibility.
©2004 Natural Good Health
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