Effect:
constipating, cleansing, anti-inflammatory, calming, expectorant, blood purifying, hemostatic, diuretic
Areas of use:
Diarrhea, intestinal inflammation, intestinal catarrh, gastric catarrh, cystitis, heartburn, inflammation of the oral mucosa, tonsillitis, dropsy, diabetes, fever, lichen, skin rashes, eczema, wounds, leucorrhea
Parts of the plant used:
Fruits, leaves
Collection time:
Leaves - April to September,
Fruits in September
Can be found:
In alluvial forests, on roadsides, sparse bushes, river banks, rubble heaps and fields.
Ingredients:
Essential oil, tannin, pectin, succinic acid, malic acid, oxalic acid, lactic acid, salicylic acid, vitamin C
Other:
☕ Tea: 1 to 2 teaspoons of dewberry leaves are poured over with 250 ml of boiling water, left to steep for 10 minutes and then strained.
The European dewberry is a subshrub whose often prostrate canes reach lengths of only 30 to 60 centimeters. The stems are bare to felty and more or less "frosted". The above-ground parts of the plant are sparsely covered with bristle-like spines. The alternately arranged leaves are divided into petioles and leaf blades. The leaf blade is odd-pinnate and contains three leaflets; five leaflets, as in many other species of the subgenus Rubus, only occur in exceptional cases. The lateral leaflets are almost sessile. In the fully grown leaves, the ovate to sometimes obovate, slightly hairy, serrated, pointed leaflets are barely longer than they are wide. The stipules of shoots are broadly lanceolate, those of the flowering short shoots are narrowly lanceolate to linear-lanceolate. The terminal or axillary racemose or paniculate inflorescences are glandular and usually finely hairy, sometimes spiny. The flower stalks are hairy. The relatively large and hermaphroditic flowers are radially symmetrical and five-petaled with a double perianth. The flat flower cup is hairy with a slightly curved center. The small, pointed sepals, which are partly glandular and hairy on the outside, are spread out. The spread out, white petals are short-nailed. The many stamens are relatively short. There are several superior, free and unicameral pistils with slender, short styles with capitate stigmas. There is a durable calyx beneath the fruit.
The aggregate drupes, which are up to 1.5 centimeters in size, easily break down into relatively few (usually 5 to 20), black, bluish-frosted, single-seeded, juicy drupes. The aggregate drupes taste similar to blackberries, only not quite as flavorful and slightly more sour. The egg- to kidney-shaped, light brown stone kernels are textured. (Wikipedia)
The juicy, bland and sour-tasting fruit is bluish-frosted due to a wax coating, and it often consists of just a few individual fruits.
In the kitchen, the fruit can be eaten raw or cooked. You can make jam, marmalade, liqueur and so on from it, or add it to desserts.