All plants contain constituents. These may include vitamins, minerals, proteins, fiber, fats, sugars, tannins, and phytosterols.  The specific composition of each plant is different from plant to plant and species to species.  It is these chemical constituents that give a plant its medicinal and nutritive properties.  Raspberry is no different.   James Duke lists over 80 constituents found in the leaves, plants, and fruits.[1]  Many plants are known for a primary constituent or “active ingredient,” however; raspberry is not like these plants because a primary constituent has not been isolated.  As a result, raspberry is not generally standardized.[2]  This is not necessarily a bad thing.  The tendency of modern medicine to standardize herbs to a given constituent renders a drug rather than an herbal medicine.  The variation in constituents is part of what makes herbs work effectively.  Furthermore, in herbal medicine, the whole is better than the sum of the parts because the constituents work together synergistically to create the medicine.  One constituent may be the “active ingredient,” but the remaining constituents are the catalysts and protective factors to render the herb safe. 

According to the Natural Medicine Comprehensive Database, “Red raspberry contains anthocyanidins, ellagitannins, flavonols such as quercetin and kaempferol, catechins, and phenolic acids. Other constituents include ascorbic acid, beta-carotene, chlorogenic acid, glutathione, and alpha-tocopherol.”[3]  Both the leaves and berries contain iron citrate.  The leaves also contain pectin, malic acid, calcium chloride, potassium chloride, and potassium sulfate.  The fruit contains iron, potassium, calcium salts, malic and tartaric acids.  The leaves also contain fragrine, which has an affect on the female organs.[4] 

Nutritional Profile of Red Raspberry Leaf in 100 grams of dried leaves

The leaves contain 83.1% water when fresh, 6.7% water when dried, and 6% sugars in the forms of sucrose, fructose, and glucose.[5]  Although raspberry has a high aluminum content, this is not the same inorganic aluminum that has been linked to Alzheimer’s.  The aluminum present in raspberry is organic and easily assimilated by the body rather than accepted and stored, which leads to disease.