Wild Cherry (Prunus serotina): Traditional Uses & Safety

At a glance

Botanical name: Prunus serotina
Family: Rosaceae
Part used: Bark
Taste: Bitter, Astringent
Temperature: Cool
Moisture: Dry

No pre-1900 source found for this reading.

Taught in Eden's Table

Seedlings (grades 3-5), Week 35

Our homeschool curriculum, one plant a week. Week 1 is free.

Safety at a glance

In pregnancy

Avoid

While breastfeeding

Avoid during breastfeeding — cyanogenic glycosides and limited safety data.

For children

Low doses considered safe; caution — avoid high doses

Cautions

Large doses of bark — cyanogenic glycosides; use in moderate doses; avoid with productive cough

General contraindications

Avoid — cyanogenic glycosides

Stewardship

Wild Cherry (Prunus serotina) bark is harvested from fallen or pruned trees sustainably. Stewardship: the song-bird's tree — the cherries feed wildlife; the bark feeds medicine; a whole-ecosystem plant.

In the traditional record

Wild Cherry (Prunus serotina) — used by the Cherokee and Iroquois as a pectoral and sedative cough remedy; adopted by the Eclectic physicians and documented in King's American Dispensatory as a primary respiratory tonic for irritable, dry, and spasmodic coughs of debility.

Which herbs suit your body?

The same herb can calm one person and wire another. Our free assessment reads your pattern across temperature, moisture and tone, then matches herbs to it.

Take the free assessment Open Wild Cherry in the Apothecary

Teaching children at home? Eden's Table builds a full herbalism curriculum around plants like this one.

Educational use

The Apothecary is educational and does not constitute medical advice. Nothing here is intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before changing what you take, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or managing a diagnosed condition.

On our sources

These entries draw on public-domain materia medica, most of it published before 1900, alongside a smaller number of modern reference works. Energetic qualities such as warming, cooling, drying and moistening are a traditional framework for describing how a plant behaves in the body, not a laboratory measurement. Where a period source states one, we cite it. Where none does, and for many North American herbs none exists, the value reflects modern herbal consensus rather than a historical text. When we cannot support a caution with real evidence, we say nothing rather than guess.