Native American Herbal, Plant Knowledge

Bearberries are currant-sized, with tough skins (that survive a winter if no people or

animals eat them) and a mealy white pulp that has 5 hard seeds inside. Eaten raw, they are

dry, slightly astringent, and contain considerable protein -- making them a good winter

emergency food for hunting or war parties. But bearberries were an important Ojibwe food

cooked, being stewed with venison, which they imparted a slightly armoatic taste to, and

where their rather bland pulp picked up flavors of the meat and other herbs and veghetables

it was cooked with.

Most attention has been devoted to the leaves. For medicinal teas, leaves should be

gathereed in early autumn before the berries are fully ripe. Perfect leaves should be chosen,

and they should be dried in a single layer in shade (because they are so thick and leathery,

this will take several weeks).

Teas made from bearberry leaves are astringent, tonic, diuretic and are a beneficial

treatment for infections of the urinary tract, because some of their chemicals combine with

chemicals normally found in the urine to form hydroquinone in sufficient quantities to be a

potent germ-killer. A disconcerting side-effect (but harmless) is that drinking a pint a day

(for several weeks, to treat such an infection) of a strong leaft tea will usually turn the urine

green, if not, the tea probablh isn't strong enough. Although the tea contains tannin (like

regular tea), it's not very tasty. It contains considerable amounts of magnesium, potassium,

and calcium (minerals which may be hard to get enough of in winters or among people whose

winter diets were mostly meat, like Inuits or Aleuts), so the tea is a tonic as well as specifically

medicinal.

Phytochemical and nutritional analysis of bearberry, mostly substances in the leaf from the

AGIS database. Click on any chemical for a list of human bodily uses or treatments,

followed by a list of other plant species containing that chemical in some amount.

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Multi-tribal uses of bearberry leaves, berries, roots, from the AGIST medical Native

Aemrican Plants database. Click on any tribal use to get a literature cite to the report of that

use of the plant.

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CREDITS: The logo photo and bearberry flowers are cropped and resized from the University of

Bearberry: ID, pix, gen info

http://www.kstrom.net/isk/food/beartrib.html (2 of 3) [5/17/2004 11:51:20 AM]