Elder Flowers; F. Fleurs de Sureau; G. Holunderblüthe, Fliederblumen.
Botanical Origin—Sambucus nigra L.—a large deciduous shrub or small tree, indigenous to Southern and Central Europe (not in Russia), Western Asia, the Crimea, the regions of the Caucasus and Southern Siberia. It is believed to be a native of England and Ireland, but not to be truly wild in Scotland. In other northern parts of Europe, as Norway and Sweden, the elder appears only as a plant introduced there during the middle ages by the monks.[1270]
History—The Romans, as we learn from Pliny, made use in medicine of the plant under notice as well as of the Dwarf Elder (S. Ebulus L.) Both kinds were employed in Britain by the ancient English[1271] and Welsh[1272] leeches, and in Italy in the medicine of the school of Salernum.
Description—The elder produces in the early summer, conspicuous, many-flowered cymes, 4 to 5 inches in diameter, of which the long peduncle divides into 5 branches, which subdivide once or several times by threes or fives, ultimately separating by repeated forking into slender, furrowed pedicels about ¼ of an inch long, each bearing a single flower. In the second or third furcations, the middle flower remains short-stalked or sessile, and opens sooner than the rest. In like manner, on the outermost small forks only one of the florets is usually long-stalked. The whole of this inflorescence forms a flattish umbelliform cyme, perfectly glabrous and destitute of bracts.
The calyx is combined with the ovary and bordered with 4 or 5 small teeth. The corolla, which is of a creamy white, is monopetalous with a very short tube and 5 spreading ovate lobes. The stamens which are about as long as the divisions of the corolla and alternate with them, are inserted in the tube of the latter. The yellow pollen which thickly powders the flowers, appears under the microscope 3-pored. The projecting ovary is crowned by a 2-or 3-lobed sessile stigma.
For use in pharmacy, the part of the flower most desirable is the corolla, to obtain a good proportion of which the gathered cymes are left for a few hours in a large heap; the mass slightly heats, the corollas detach themselves, and are separated from the green stalks by shaking, rubbing, and sifting; they require to be then rapidly dried. This done, they become much shrivelled and assume a dull yellow tint. When fresh, they have a sweet faint smell, which becomes stronger and somewhat different by drying, and is quite unlike the repulsive odour of the fresh leaves and bark. Dried elder flowers have a bitterish, slightly gummy flavour. On the Continent they are sold with the stalks, i.e. in entire cymes.
Chemical Composition—Elder flowers yield a very small percentage of a butter-like essential oil, lighter than water, and smelling strongly of the flowers; it is easily altered by exposure to the air.[1273] The oil is accompanied by traces of volatile acids.
Uses—Elder flowers are only employed in British medicine for making an aromatic distilled water, and for communicating a pleasant odour to lard (Unguentum Sambuci). The flowers of Sambucus canadensis L.[1274] indigenous in the United States, which are extremely similar to those of our species, appear to be more fragrant. The leaves of the latter are sometimes used for giving a fine green tint to oil or fat, as in the Oleum viride and Unguentum Sambuci foliorum of the shops. The bark, once much employed, is now obsolete.