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Herb library · Herb · Prunus serotina

Wild cherry bark

The bark of the North American black cherry, made into cough syrups in 19th-century American medicine. The plant contains cyanogenic compounds that can release hydrogen cyanide, and the bark has not been studied in people.

Traditional use

A large tree of eastern North America, also invasive in Europe, whose bark smells of bitter almonds when soaked. In 19th-century American medicine the bark, gathered in autumn, was a sedative tonic, and its syrup was used to calm coughs. Among the Chippewa (Ojibwe), Frances Densmore recorded (1928) that wild cherry twigs, tied in a bundle, were steeped in hot water as an everyday drink.

What studies show

No studies in people of this herb on its own yet. What is known of it comes from the traditions that use it.

  • Insufficient

    Coughs and colds: no studies in people were found. A 2020 review gathers only laboratory and animal work on the bark, leaves and fruit.

Be careful of

Cautions

  • NoteWild cherry contains cyanogenic glycosides, which can release hydrogen cyanide; prunasin and amygdalin have been measured in its leaves. Black cherry leaves have fatally poisoned a goat.
  • Ask a clinicianTalk with a clinician or pharmacist before using this if you take prescription medicines, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are giving it to a child.

From the old books

What herbals and dispensaries of the past printed. History, in their words.

“In preparing this last beverage the twigs of the chokecherry and wild cherry were tied in a little bundle by a strip of bark long enough to permit the lifting of the bundle and dropping it into hot water without burning the hand.”
Frances Densmore, Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians (1928), p. 317. See the page of Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians, p. 317 (opens in a new tab) · Read the full passage from Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians, p. 317
“Water and alcohol take up its virtues; boiling impairs its medicinal properties, by driving off the hydrocyanic acid.”
Harvey Wickes Felter and John Uri Lloyd, King's American Dispensatory (1905), vol. 2, p. 1584. See the page of King's American Dispensatory, vol. 2, p. 1584 (opens in a new tab) · Read the full passage from King's American Dispensatory, vol. 2, p. 1584

Sources

  1. Phytopharmacological Possibilities of Bird Cherry Prunus padus L. and Prunus serotina L. Species and Their Bioactive Phytochemicals (Nutrients, 2020) (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  2. Quantitative analysis of amygdalin and prunasin in Prunus serotina Ehrh. using 1H-NMR spectroscopy (Phytochem Anal, 2014) (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026
  3. Prunus spp. intoxication in ruminants: a case in a goat and diagnosis by identification of leaf fragments in rumen contents (J Vet Diagn Invest, 2004) (opens in a new tab) · NIH · read September 25, 2026

Reviewed September 25, 2026.