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THE BENEFITS OF THE USE OF RED RASPBERRY
IN HERBAL PREPARATIONS

KNOWN HERBAL FORMULAS OF RED RASPBERRY

RED RASPBERRY
by Marisa Corless

This site brought to you by The School of Natural Healing & Christopher Publications

[Table of Contents] [History] [Location] [Chemical Constituents] [Medicinal Qualities]
[Contra-Indications] [Known Herbal Formulas] [Dosages & Applications] [Personal Experience] [Bibliography]

Raspberry is used for such a wide variety of ailments that it is used in many commercial formulas available on the market as well as many formulas listed in herbals. 

 

Some of the formulas by other companies are similar to Dr. Christopher.  For example, 5W, by Nature’s Sunshine is a combination of red raspberry, black cohosh, squawvine, dong quai, and butcher’s broom.  Similarly, Dr. Christopher’s Prenatal Formula contains squawvine herb, blessed thistle herb, black cohosh root, pennyroyal herb, false unicorn root, red raspberry leaf, and lobelia herb.  Both of these formulas are to prepare the mother’s body for the birth of the new baby at the end of her pregnancy. 

 

Dr. Christopher’s also sells the following:

 

Female Reproductive Formula, which contains golden seal root, blessed thistle herb, cayenne pepper, cramp bark, false unicorn root, ginger root, red raspberry leaf, squawvine herb & uva ursi leaf.

 

Herbal Eyebright, which contains bayberry bark, eyebright herb, golden seal root, red raspberry leaf & cayenne pepper. 

 

Lower Bowel Formula, which contains cascara sagrada bark, barberry bark, cayenne pepper, ginger root, lobelia herb, red raspberry leaves, turkey rhubarb root, fennel seeds & goldenseal root.

 

Nature’s Sunshine also sells the following:

 

Digestive Bitters Tonic, which contains gentian root, cardamom, orange peel, dandelion root, and red raspberry. EW is similar to Dr. Christopher’s Herbal Eyebright formula and is used for eye health.  EW contains bayberry root bark, golden seal root and rhizome, red raspberry leaves, and eyebright aerial parts.

 

Rosemary Gladstar uses raspberry in several of her formulas.  She recommends using raspberry, combined with nettles, for anemia to boost iron levels.[1]  Many of her formulas contain both nettles and raspberry some of which are listed here.  High Calcium Children’s Tea contains 3 parts rosehips, 2 parts lemon balm, 2 parts lemongrass, 2 parts oats, 1 part nettle, 1 part raspberry leaf, and ½ part cinnamon.[2]  Her Herbal Iron Syrup contains 3 parts dandelion leaf, 3 parts dandelion root, 3 parts nettle, 3 parts raspberry leaf, 2 parts alfalfa, 2 parts yellow dock root, 1 part hawthorn berry, and honey, prepared as a syrup.  For every 2 cups of syrup add ¼ cup brandy, ¼ cup fruit concentrate (not juice), 2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses, 2 teaspoons nutritional yeast, and 2 teaspoons spirulina powder.[3]  Women’s Tonic Tea contains 2 parts lemon balm, 2 parts nettle, 2 parts peppermint or spearmint, 2 parts raspberry leaf, 1 part milky oats, and stevia to taste.[4] Her Womb Tea for toning the pelvic region contains 2 parts nettle, 2 parts white oak bark, 1 part lady’s mantle, 1 part oats, and 1 part raspberry leaf.[5] The High-Calcium Tea for Menstruation is designed to prevent menstrual cramps.  It contains 2 parts nettle, 2 parts oatstraw, 2 parts pennyroyal leaf, 1 part horsetail, 1 part peppermint, and 1 part raspberry leaf.[6]  The Anti-Yeast Tea contains 2 parts mullein, 2 parts raspberry leaf, 2 parts sage, and ¼ part goldenseal root.[7] Her Oatstraw and Horsetail Hernia Remedy contains 4 parts comfrey leaf, 3 parts raspberry, 2 parts lemon balm, 2 parts nettle, 2 parts white oak bark, 1 part horsetail, and 1 part oatstraw.[8]

 

Dr. Christopher, in The School of Natural Healing lists twenty formulas under Red Raspberry.[9] Some are included here:

 

Eye Wash formula

½ ounce each of raspberry leaves, oak bark, and myrrh tincture.  Simmer the raspberry leaves and oak bark for 5 minutes in 1 pint of water.  Strain and add the myrrh when it is cool and mix well.   

 

Excessive Menstruation

2 parts raspberry leaves, 1 part prickly ash, 1 part blue cohosh, 1 part wild yam, and ½ part cinnamon.  Infuse one ounce of the mixture for 20 minutes in 1 pint of water, tightly covered.  Strain and sweeten with honey to taste.

 

Inflammation of the Uterus

2 ounces raspberry leaves and ½ ounce myrrh or gum myrrh powder.  Simmer the leaves for 10 minutes in 1 pint of water tightly covered.  Strain.  When it is cool enough to use, stir in the myrrh. 

 

Mumps

Simmer 1 ounce raspberry leaves with 1 ounce of bayberry bark in 1 quart of water for 10 minutes, tightly covered.  Strain the hot decoction over 1 teaspoon ginger.  Let stand until cool.  Sweeten with honey and keep in a cool place. 

 

Piles or English Ointment

½ ounce raspberry leaves, ½ ounce yarrow flowers and stems powder, 3 ounces olive oil, 1 ounce of wheat germ oil, and beeswax.  Fold the herbs into warm olive oil and stir for 15 minutes over heat.  Add wheat germ oil and enough beeswax (around ½ ounce) to eventually stiffen the ointment.  Continue stirring until the beeswax is melted.  Take off heat and let cool while stirring.  Pour into clean containers and allow to set.

 

Parturition as well as after-pains, uterine hemorrhage, and miscarriage prevention

Infuse 1 ounce of raspberry leaves and ¼ teaspoon composition formula (powder and mix 2 pounds bayberry root bark, 1 pound pinus or hemlock spruce inner bark, 1 pound ginger, 2 ounces cayenne, and 2 ounces cloves) in 1 pint of boiling water for 15 minutes.  Cover tightly and let stand until cool.  Strain and sweeten to taste.

           

I also have created several formulas containing raspberry leaf.  Most of them are related to the lungs.  These are two that I have used many times for congested lungs with great success. 

 

Marin’s Lung Support Tea

 

1 teaspoon each raspberry leaves, comfrey leaves, and mullein herb, ½ teaspoon thyme and lavender flowers, 1/8-1/4 teaspoon lobelia herb.  Pour 1 cup of boiling water over the herbs and steep covered for 15 minutes.  Sweeten with honey to taste.

 

Marisa’s Lung Support Formula 

 

½ ounce of elecampane, marshmallow root, spearmint, and elder berries, ¼ ounce of comfrey leaf, comfrey root, lobelia, red raspberry leaf, 1 pint of glycerin, and 11 ounces of distilled water.  Place all ingredients in a jar for 14 days, shaking daily.  Strain the glycerite and bottle. 

 

Raspberry is also used as a nutritive food as well as for medicinal food.  The following recipes were printed in Maude Grieve’s A Modern Herbal.[10]

           

Raspberry Wine
To every 3 pints of fruit, carefully cleared from mouldy or bad, put 1 quart of water; bruise the former. In 24 hours strain the liquor and put to every quart 1 lb. of sugar, of good middling quality, of Lisbon. If for white currants, use lump sugar. It is best to put the fruit, etc., into a large pan, and when, in three or four days, the scum rises, take that off before the liquor be put into the barrel. Those who make from their own gardens may not have a sufficiency to fill the barrel at once; the wine will not hurt if made in the pan in the above proportions, and added as the fruit ripens, and can be gathered in dry weather.

Keep an account of what is put in each time.

 

Raspberry Vinegar
Raspberry Vinegar is made either with malt vinegar or white vinegar (i.e. either white-wine vinegar or dilute acetic acid). Malt vinegar adds to the colour, which with white vinegar generally needs the addition of a little caramel to deepen it. When made from the fruit 2 lb. of raspberries is required to a pint of vinegar. Another method is to acidulate Raspberry-juice with acetic acid and sweeten with plain syrup.

 

Another Recipe for the Same
Put 1 lb. of fine fruit into a china-bowl, and pour upon it 1 quart of the best white-wine vinegar; next day strain the liquor on 1 lb. of fresh raspberries; and the following day do the same, but do not squeeze the fruit, only drain the liquor as dry as you can from it. The last time pass it through a canvas, preciously wet with vinegar, to prevent waste. Put it into a stone jar, with 1 lb. of sugar to every pint of juice, broken into large lumps; stir it when melted, then put the jar into a saucepan of water or on a hot hearth, let it simmer and skim it. When cold, bottle it.

This is one of the most useful preparations that can be kept in a house, not only as affording the most refreshing beverage, but being of singular efficacy in complaints of the chest. A large spoonful or two in a tumbler of water. Be careful to use no glazed nor metal vessels for it.
-----(Old Cookery-Book.)

 

Raspberry Brandy
Pick fine dry fruit, put it into a stone jar, and the jar into a kettle of water, or on a hot hearth, till the juice will run; strain, and to every pint add 1/2 lb. of sugar, give one boil and skim it; when cold, put equal quantities of juice and brandy, shake well and bottle. Some people prefer it stronger of the brandy.
-----(Old Cookery-Book.)