Eden Apothecary · Herb Profile
Vaccinium myrtillus
Pronounced Bilberry = BIL-ber-ee; Vaccinium myrtillus = vak-SIN-ee-um mur-TIL-us
Cool, dry, and astringent: a tannin-and-anthocyanin astringent that binds the loose, weeping bowel, tightens fragile, leaky capillaries, and feeds the microcirculation with antioxidant, vessel-protecting color.
Fruit is considered safe in the amounts normally found in foods. Little is known about the safety of bilberry in amounts greater than those found in foods during pregnancy, so avoid concentrated therapeutic extract doses; avoid the leaf entirely, given its chronic-toxicity potential and absence of pregnancy data. Source: NCCIH Bilberry fact sheet; LactMed (Drugs and Lactation Database) Bilberry record.
Fruit is generally well tolerated as a food. No data exist on the excretion of any bilberry components into breast milk or on the safety and efficacy of bilberry in nursing mothers or infants, and no recommendation can be made on the use of large quantities of bilberry products while breastfeeding, so limit intake to food amounts and avoid concentrated extracts and the leaf. Source: LactMed (Drugs and Lactation Database) Bilberry record; NCCIH Bilberry fact sheet.
The ripe berry is a food and is appropriate for children in culinary amounts. A decoction of the dried berries is a traditional European folk remedy for childhood diarrhea, but modern pediatric dosing and safety of concentrated extracts are not established, so use only short term and with practitioner guidance. Do not give children the leaf. Source: NCCIH Bilberry fact sheet; AHPA Botanical Safety Handbook, 2nd ed.
The ripe fruit is a food and is very well tolerated; standardized fruit extract is generally well tolerated, with occasional mild digestive upset. The main concerns are with the leaf and with bleeding risk. Bilberry anthocyanins have antiplatelet activity and may add to the effect of blood thinners: a case of rectal bleeding and hematuria has been reported in a man on a newly prescribed anticoagulant taking bilberry long term, and bilberry can raise prothrombin and partial thromboplastin times, so use cautiously with anticoagulant, antiplatelet, aspirin, and NSAID drugs and stop about 2 weeks before surgery. Bilberry (especially the leaf) can lower blood sugar, so monitor glucose if combined with antidiabetic medication. The leaf is unsafe in high doses or for long periods: chronic high-dose leaf intake has caused wasting, anemia, jaundice, and death in animals, an effect attributed to hydroquinone and related constituents, so avoid prolonged or high-dose leaf use.
No absolute contraindication for the ripe fruit eaten as food. Avoid concentrated therapeutic fruit-extract doses and all leaf use in pregnancy and lactation (insufficient data). Avoid prolonged or high-dose leaf use in anyone (chronic toxicity). Use cautiously with anticoagulant, antiplatelet, aspirin, and NSAID drugs (bleeding risk) and with antidiabetic drugs (additive hypoglycemia), and stop before surgery. Not a substitute for medical evaluation and treatment of diabetes, retinopathy, or persistent diarrhea.
Vaccinium myrtillus is a slow-growing wild heathland shrub that resists commercial cultivation, so nearly all commercial fruit and leaf is wild-harvested, largely from Nordic, Baltic, and Eastern European forests. It is globally widespread and assessed as Least Concern, and is not on the United Plant Savers at-risk list (which tracks North American natives), but regional overharvest and climate and habitat pressure on boreal heaths are real concerns. Choose sustainably wild-collected sources, harvest berries without stripping or trampling the perennial understory, and favor fruit over leaf to reduce pressure and toxicity risk.
Not named in the canonical biblical texts and unknown to the classical Mediterranean writers (Dioscorides, Pliny): bilberry is a plant of the northern and central European and North Asian heaths and moorlands, outside the Mediterranean world of Scripture. Its medicinal reputation is northern-European folk medicine, recorded by Grieve (1931) and later formalized in the Commission E and ESCOP monographs.
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