Herbal treatment of Acne

Over the last few years we have seen many patients on orthodox medicines with varying side effects but none so detrimental as the Acne Drug, Roaccutane that seems to be all too easily prescribed to teenagers with acne.  Reported adverse reactions caused by the drug include gastrointestinal disorders, suicide, and birth defects.

Acne is an embarrassing condition that most typically develops in teenage years but recently, it has become increasingly common for people to develop acne whilst in the pre-teen age group too, between the ages of eight and twelve.

Unfortunately acne is extraordinarily common. Loads of our teenagers suffer from some form of acne, ranging from the mildest of cases, which manifest with just a few isolated spots and blackheads, through to the most severe, which produce an angry mass of spots, pustules and cystic lesions which cover the majority of the acne sufferer's body and may heal to leave permanent acne scarring.

Medical studies in the United Kingdom have shown that 90% of the teenage population suffer from some form of acne including the very mildest cases. 50% of teenagers develop acne classed as severe enough to require medical treatment. It could be said that acne is the norm in teenagers.

Causes of Teenage Acne

Sebaceous glands are tiny glands found near the surface of your skin. The glands are attached to hair follicles. A hair follicle is a small hole in your skin that an individual hair grows out of. The purpose of sebaceous glands is to lubricate the hair and the skin in order to stop it drying out. The glands do this by producing an oily substance called sebum. In acne, the glands begin to produce too much sebum. The excess sebum mixes with dead skin cells and both substances form a plug in the follicle. If the plugged follicle is close to the surface of the skin, it will bulge outwards, creating a whitehead. Alternatively, the plugged follicle can be open to the skin, creating a blackhead. Normally harmless bacteria that live on the skin can then contaminate and infect the plugged follicles, resulting in papules, pustules, nodules, and cysts which are all classifications of differing types of spots.

Hormones

The cause of nearly all teenage acne is the complex hormonal surge that occurs around the time of puberty.  Hormones released at the onset of puberty are responsible for the appearance of acne during the teen years. These hormones stimulate the skin's sebaceous, or oil glands, creating an oily skin that is more prone to pore blockages and breakouts. Stress and diet are also major acne triggers. Unfortunately, in this modern lifestyle people are extremely stressed.  Stress provokes the release of still more hormones which can over-load the delicate processes happening within the liver as it struggles to cope with the hormonal onslaught.  The diet of lots of teenagers commonly includes lots of sugars and fats, which also over-load the liver.

Herbal Healing

There are many factors that can influence the onset and severity of acne so as herbalists we treat each person on an individual basis.  There are however a few general principles.

The Liver

Supporting the liver helps to clear the drastic hormonal increase during puberty.  The liver is the primary organ that is responsible for processing ‘sex hormones’ such as testosterone.  It is seen as the seat of anger, which means when we put strain on our liver it is harder to control these feelings.  The primary herb we would use to help rebuild and detoxify the liver is milk thistle.  Bitter herbs also have an important role.

Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum)

This robust beautiful waste ground thistle was famed for being good for breastfeeding mothers because of the milky white veins running through her leaves hence her name.

Milk thistle, is a liver tonic, and this is why it is so effective for acne sufferers. We use the seeds ground down and put into capsules but they can be ground and added to cereals porridge etc too.

We grow our plants in an old lorry tyre in a sunny spot of the garden –the hard bit is extracting the seeds, good gardening gloves are needed to protect hands from the incredibly spiky thistle heads.

Milk thistle helps the liver regenerate 4 times faster than normal. It also lowers blood lipids, clears stress hormones like cortisol, and increases the flow of bile from the liver and gall bladder. It both prevents and helps cure liver damage, and reduces the fatty degeneration of the liver.

The herb acts on the membranes of liver cells - it prevents the entry of virus toxins and other toxic substances, including drugs. Thus damage to liver cells is prevented.

The Lymphatic System

The lymphatic system helps to clear the blood of unwanted products.  If the liver can’t process the amount of waste products floating round the body then the lymph will push it out onto the skin.  We use herbs that support the lymphatic system to clear the infection away from the skin such as burdock and red clover.

Burdock (Arctium lappa)

The giant leaves of Burdock can be seen all over our lands, a very adaptable weed can flourish in fields woodlands and marshy areas alike.

After taking his dog for a walk one day in the early 1940s, George de Mestral, a Swiss inventor, became curious about the seeds of the burdock plant that had attached themselves to his clothes and to the dog's fur. Under a microscope, he looked closely at the hook-and-loop system that the seeds use to hitchhike on passing animals aiding seed dispersal, and he realised that the same approach could be used to join other things together. The result was the Velcro that we all know and love.

Arctium is a valuable remedy for the treatment of most skin conditions especially acne and boils. He cleanses the blood, but needs to be used gently over a period of time. I use small dosages and always-in combination with another lymphatic herbs like calendula, red clover or cleavers. This is because he is such a powerful mover of deep-seated toxins. Some one once described it to me as these toxins need a helping hand once mobilised to exit the body, this is what the accompanying herbs do.

Part of the skin clearing action Arctium provides is through bitter stimulation of the digestive juices and bile secretion and it will thus aid digestion which is the root of many system imbalances.

Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)

Most folks know Red Clover as a menopausal herb because of the Isoflavone constituents (plant estrogens), but traditionally this valuable plant was used for Lung stuff as a chief ingredient in cough mixtures and Skin disorders.

We pick our red clover in the fields of Northaw Village, luckily they are grazing for livestock so unsprayed and mainly unused by people and dog walkers. She begins lifting her delicate, intricate flower heads in early May, that are more purple in colour than red really. We have named her Scarlet Lucky-leaf because of her associations with Good luck. She is a Sprawling hardy perennial member of the Pea family. Attracting butterflies, moths and other long-tongued insects, particularly bumblebees - it sometimes known as Bee Bread.

Her leaves are food for the caterpillars of the Clouded Yellow, Small Skipper, Essex Skipper, Painted Lady and Pale Clouded Yellow butterflies, and several moths, such as the Latticed Heath, Shaded broad Bar, Mother Skipton, Tawny Wave, Chalk Carpet and Belted Beauty. Also the Narrow-bordered five-spot Burnet moth. Finches eat the seeds.

She is also an important meadow plant because the bacteria in the tiny nodules on the roots help to fix nitrogen in the soil so also good for the compost heap. Containing Vitamins C and B, Magnesium, Zinc, Copper, Selenium, Chlorine and Calcium - so the leaves are brilliant additions to salads. The plant also contains small amounts of silica, Choline, and Lecithin - all essential for normal bodily function.

Skin Healing

There is often a lot of scar tissue formed around the damaged areas from the pustules that form under the skin in acne.  Healing herbs are important to help break down this fibrous tissue and restore soft, clear skin.  As herbalists we use herbs that grow prolifically around us believing that help is always close at hand.  To support the healing, we use the common Daisy, Bellis perenis.

Daisy

The common daisy that grows in the grass is one of the most under used and wonderful remedies. She is a fantastic herb, so prolific and easily recognisable a really simple safe herbal remedy.

She is our native arnica, bringing out the child in us all, renews joy and helps to heal emotional bruising reflected in that when you stand on a daisy, it bounces back.

Her use here in the treatment of Acne is as both a lymphatic and healing agent. Making daisy medicine is as simple as going out into any grass lands or unsprayed garden and picking the flower heads of the delicate pink , white and yellow flowers, this is a delightful task!

Then drying them out, I lie all my herbs on newspaper and then leave them in the airing cupboard, turning them daily until they are bone dry, then put them into various old glass jars, which look wonderful in my kitchen and then finally make colourful, delicious mixes to drink as tea.

Circulation

To potentiate or help these actions to work more efficiently it is good to use a herb to help improve the circulation to the area you’re trying to treat.  Yarrow is a commonly found aromatic, ideal for this job.

Yarrow

Yarrow is extremely common growing alongside grass in our lawns.  He often doesn’t get to flower, chopped down during mowing. His Latin name is Achillea melifolium.  Achillea is from Achilles, the great Greek warrior.  He was said to have used yarrow to staunch the blood of his wounded soldiers on the battlefield.  I have seen yarrow staunch deep wounds almost instantly after being chewed up and placed on the site, great for nose bleeds too. Melifolium means a thousand leaves in Latin and that’s what it has, a thousand, tiny, feathery leaves. We gave yarrow the persona of a trusty collie dog, always there by your side to protect and support you.  We use him in spell work and room cleansing to clear and protect a space.

With his feathery appearance, we see yarrow as a herb ruled by the element air.  Air has the quality of moving things by promoting blood flow, through relaxing the peripheral blood vessels. This wonderful aromatic herb is a great addition to our clear complexion, skin mix. 

Steam Facials are also a good tools to use I fill a basin with boiling water and a few drops of lavender essential oil then ask my acne or spot suffering patients to put a towel over their heads and leave their faces in the steam for 5-10 mins.

Nutrition

As we mentioned before, diet and nutrition play a big part.  Cutting out fats and sugars will really help, so no fizzy pop and visits to the chippie not easy for your average teenager but vital to develop good habits for the future. Drinking loads of water the recommendation is  2 litres of water over a day will help to flush out toxins thus clearing the blood.

Rootz Workshop

Valerian coming out da ground

So today we met in our community garden and got to work in the freezing cold bright sunny morning digging up roots. Its close to the new moon, just gone this last weekend, so a good time to work with roots. This time of year most of the plants have flowers and have gone to seed so all the energy is dropping back down into the earthy roots...

We focused on 4 plants; Nettle, Marshmallow, Valerian and Elecampane In pairs and three took turns working with each plant. Observing the differences and similarities between them.

Yellow Rhizomes

The Nettle is bright yellow and close to the surface of the earth as you pull on them they come away easily. 

The Elecampane was a lot more stubborn to come away and much deeper set with hues of burgundy and creamy white, Marshmallow again was extremely deep set and training along the ground, Kris joked about ‘giving birth to the root’ as he worked really hard to unearth it. The valerian had us all sat around the ground playing, teasing its millions of tiny worm-like rootlets gently away from the soil….

We brought our bounty home and Kris set to work  destroying mybathroom washing and scrubbing the Elecampane in the bath. The valerian got the kids paddling pool for a washing, the marshmallow, washed and ready first so Belle got to work chop chop chopping away. The fibrous roots were quite difficult to process in contrast to the much crisper and more similar to cutting a carrot marshmallow in fact there were a lot of similarities to carrots with that one!

I am writing this pretty ‘out of my head’ as I nibbled on a little bit of the valerian, not expecting to feel quite this hazy…. straight after chewing it I lost the power of speech! Nutty whilst you are trying to run a workshop and explain the medicinal applications of the herbs…. Luckily all the other participants were also totally valerianed up.

We made tinctures and prepared root for drying and then sat discussing and making notes about each plant.

Nettle Root – The roots of this plant are really rhizomes travelling across country in a clever fully connected network. The taste is sweet, astringent and salty. It dried all our mouths out very quickly! Reminding us of its Mars like qualities of Heating and Drying, Fire force element. Sweet gives it the potential for tonifying in deficiency conditions. Astringent allows it to contain fluids, to stop bleeding and discharge. Its salty taste points to the ability to soften hardness and dissolve deposits

Stinging nettle root is used for urination problems related to an enlarged Prostate (benign Prostate hypertrophy).

Marshmallow- We ate a piece each and soon our mouths very extremely mucousy, coated in a gelatinous type substance, it over ridding qualities cooling and moistening marshmallow root does contains a lot of mucilage, which is exactly a gooey gelatinous substance that some plants naturally produce. It acts as a demulcent, so a soothing film coats all the irritated mucus membranes, thus reducing pain and inflammation quickly. This is the primary mechanism of action, although marshmallow root also adds moisture, reduces inflammation and acts as a mild diuretic. Very useful in a massive variety of differing conditions.

Elecampane-

one of my favourite lung herbs we ate a piece and immediately felt a bit like we were eating soap! The saponins responsible for this taste act as irritants to lung tissue provoking an expectorant action.

As well as this expectorant or bringing phelm up and out action it is also, anti-tussive (stops coughing), sedative, anti-fungal, relaxing, warming, and anti-microbial. Elecampane is extremely soothing to bronchial tube linings and is used as a specific remedy for chronic bronchitis and bronchial asthma as the root contains these amazing constituents; helenalin, helenin, and inulin, a phytochemical that coats and soothes bronchial passages and is an expectorant which helps to reduce chronic bronchitis secretions.

This wonderful herb is being used to relieve symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis and, according to recent research on tuberculosis; Elecampane’s volatile oils stimulate circulation and the bronchi, bronchioles and nose.

There is also exciting research showing that Elecampane is active againsgt MRSA

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20095126

Valerian -  Little bright white wormy rootlets, really crisp and crunchy to chop. We were all quite drawn to working and processin this one.

Valerian is used extensively for nervousness, insomnia, and muscle spasms, including menstrual cramping. Valerian, however, is not a plant well suited to all people. Rather than relieving nervousness, anxiety, and promoting restful sleep, valerian can stimulate and increase hyperactivity. Not all of us even ate a piece but the room suddenly fell silent and everyone became introspective and sleepy.

Stellaria media CHICKWEED

I have been juicing the chickweed from my vegetable beds these past few days, chickweed, beetroot n apple has been my staple. I don’t normally go for the greens this time of year as they often are ‘done’ after flowering and fruiting…but the chickweed is still budding here in my garden. In fact it seems positively spring-like. I have also been chopping the plentiful leaves and stems up and adding a few of them to my salads they have a pleasant slightly salty, slightly soapy taste but most of all that green, green flavour that I know is so nourishing and nutritive.

I love the tiny delicate star shaped white flowers of this creeping, succulant green invader. I feel her medicine is bright and illuminatory.

A herb of the moon it is cooling and soothing and possibly most famous for its' amazing ability to treat hot, itchy skin conditions swiftly, moon herbs also exert control over the movements of water within the body. I use it pre-menstrually when I often get water retention it quickly relieves the bloated heavy feelings that can arrive.

A lot of the benefits ascribed to chickweed may simply be the result of its high nutritional value, one of the more nutrient-dense weeds readily available for nourishment and medicine. It contains generous amounts of: Magnesium, iron, calcium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, silicon, zinc and sodium. It is also high in vitamin C (ascorbates), bioflavinoids, vitamin A, and some of the B-complex vitamins such as niacin. It also contains gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), a fatty acid that is a bit of a panacea really.

Birds and chickens are known to avidly feed on the seeds and leaves of chickweed hence its name. The ancient Latin name for it was Morsus gallinae which means a morsel or bite for hens.

Chickweed is classified as a demulcent herb, meaning that it soothes and reduces irritations of the mucous membranes. Demulcents coat, shield, lubricate and soothe inflamed tissue while relieving the pain associated with inflammation. Also classified as an expectorant, mostly to do with its Saponin content, acting upon the bronchi and lungs to promote the expulsion of mucous from the respiratory tract. Due to these qualities, European herbalists have used chickweed successfully in the treatment of TB, whooping cough, bronchitis and the common cold and flu. In the 1860s and 1870s, herbals published by Shaker communities described how they utilised this herb to treat any inflammations of the eye, as well as acute bacterial skin infections.

I believe that Chickweed has an influence on the liver helping to cool irritated hot and angry tissue within this busy organ and I often suggest chickweed as a hangover cure, for just this type of symptomatic picture.

The beetroot, chickweed n apple fresh juice is a fabulous immune, nervous, digestive, lymphatic, respiratory tonic........mmmmmmmmmmmmm tasty too

stir it up

Autumnal Reflections

I went on a Shamanic Course on the coast near Seaford over the weekend with Dawn and Lorraine of the Eagles Wings Medicine School. The course was entitled Awakening the Enchantress and these words enchanted me... I was curious and I love learning new things.

http://eagleswing.co.uk/workshops-training/

The morning before I set off I felt a little confused at myself, menstrual and introspective I sat thinking,’ Why did I book on this course? My Enchantress is well n truly awake!' I did my morning yoga n settled my monkey mind telling myself to be still and let things wash over me. Made myself a pot of raspberry leaf, ladies mantle, nettle n yarrow tea to easy my blood time and set off on my journey to meet the ladies.

The retreat was held at Gayle’s Farm a beautiful venue on the South coast I arrived and plotted myself in a bed in the smaller dorm. Everyone arrived together it seemed all chatty and warm, it felt fab to be surrounded by women. We sat in a circle and sang chants to open the weekend and as my voice and heart opened I felt home, I felt accepted, I felt calm and part of a whole.  Sat in a circle of 16 women whom I had never met before, as we sang in  circle they became my sisters.

The Ant was pulled from the tarot deck and what I heard was Patience, Trust and Strategy....and what I thought of was community co-operation.

There were times over the weekend when I questioned as to what I was doing there being guided to connect with an Enchantress that is ME. There were times over the weekend when I was moved to express tears simply by listening to others talk. I am grateful to Dawn and Lorraine who showed me warmth, compassion, love and generosity of spirit. I trust them and their expert guidance in their craft. What struck me most about these 2 Women was their, Down to Earth manor. Shamanism comes in as many guises as Yoga or DJs and these Shamanic Women are my kind o Music...I can dance with them, knowing if I throw in some silly moves they'll laugh along with me.....

What I learnt about myself is that through being gentler I am more focused and powerful. My personal mission is growing and developing and changing with the seasons. Fiona and I are now at a stage, 10 yrs down the line of Sensory Herbcraft's Birth that we can employ a fund raiser…Our dreams are real we are walking in them. Change is possible for our planet and our race and through compassion, love and care it is happening.

One thing that really empowered me over the weekend was when I searched my soul for my RANT, my RANT was one of deep compassion I don't feel disempowered in anyway, I trust and believe fully in Life, whatever shit is around challenging my balance. We each have an enourmous power inside of us to light up the world. Planting seeds, literally to grow our food and medicine and seeds of hope so that through communication and education we can create brilliant amazing changes.

Today I shared drinks of beetroot, apple, cucumber, chickweed n nettle juice from the back garden and soup of our potatoes, leeks, tomatoes and rosemary….. and the world is bright and clear….

LOVE LOVE LOVE

Appletastic

I love the Autumn watching the first signs of seasanal change, the colours of the leaves, the beginnings of decay in the air. The colds and flus that come at each seasonal shift can be treated with the plentiful elderberries so efficient at supporting our immune systems.

The Harvest time is a time of intense busyness, the picking and then creative ways of storing all the plenty. Hawthorn ketchups, rosehips n crab apple jams, rowan jellies the list goes on n on.

I live in a tiny village Northaw, one of the last bastions of country before the Metropolis of London just outside the M25. Northaw has a long history of fruit growing having a few ancient Damsons left from the large orchard that was around the church, a road called Vineyards that was once filled with grapes and a 150 yr olds apple orchard at the manor house. The Manor House (1686) is now owned by a firm of Architects who kindly let us come and pick a few apples from the heaving orchard, nobody harvests these amazing apples. It seems so totally crazy to me that 2 miles down the road tescos and sainsburys and the coop sell apples from New Zealand for £2.50 for 6 and people actually buy them?

This annual wasted harvest of free resources goes uncommented. The collection of fruit from abandoned orchards, are outdated activities, no one has the time anymore to engage and respect our nature cycles.

Even less noted are the sloes, wild damsons, crab-apples and hazelnuts, no longer even noticed, the ‘scenery’ of a countryside which has itself become another item of consumption by urban society.  Our ancient Damson trees are being uprooted by familes that don’t want o deal with the mess that the plums make when they drop from the trees.

‘It seems that things are no longer perceived to have value unless they are traded in the market. The forlorn harvests of the British countryside are a metaphor for the market economy. Things that are freely available do not figure in any economic accounting system, and for that reason are despised and rejected. The economic system itself sanctifies the commodities it blesses by its pricing system.’  www.urbanharvest.org.uk/

                                                                         We brought 5 large boxes of apples back home which are now living in my living room with us whilst we think of new ways to eat and store them. 

Orchards have acted as centres for ‘songs, recipes, cider, festive gatherings... wisdom gathered over generations about pruning and grafting, aspect and slope, soil and season, variety and use. The Wassail is one such example of these ‘festive gatherings’ designed to ward off evil spirits and encourage productive cropping in the coming year. This year we are planning an Autumn Equinox celebration and harvest day at a friends orchard, we are borrowing a commercial press and enlisting the help of all those who are interested.

 

                                                        Each morning we juice 7-8 apples for a fresh start to our day, then a bit of apple compot on our porridge. I have invested in a dehydrator to make apple rings by the hundreds. Our family favourite is Apple Strudel.

Orchards have been a component of the British landscape for many centuries and the common apple has a complex history. DNA evidence suggests that of the almost 3,000 apple varieties that populate British orchards, all are the descendants of the wild sweet apple Malus pumila of Asia, unrelated to the native European crab apple Malus sylvestris.

The Romans are credited with introducing the sweet apple Malus pumila and the pear Pyrus communis. The Saxon invaders who followed the Romans left a scattering of place-names, such as Applegarth (‘apple orchard’) and Appleton (‘where apples grow’).

During the 17th century much of our fruit growing expertise centred around aristocratic nurserymen, who were influenced by continental, and particularly French fruit-growing heritage. These wealthy travelling plantsmen collected fruit varieties and established orchards in the estates and large houses of England. Orchards became widely associated with the aristocracy, as illustrated by the number of National Trust properties that incorporate historic orchards.

The first written records of cider-making date from the reign of King John (1199-1216). By 1700 the counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset already had a well-established tradition of orcharding for the production of cider and perry. These proliferating farm orchards would often have been dual purpose: providing fruit to eat, cook or store for the farm as well as juice and alcohol. Cider became a component of the farm labourer’s wage.

Since 1950, fewer and fewer traditional orchards have been planted and the national stock of standard fruit trees is now heavily biased towards an older generation of trees that are more than 50 years old. 

Over the last century virtually all fruit grown for the consumer market has been produced in intensive commercial orchards that utilise a range of chemical treatments and trees planted closely in rows along herbicide treated strips. Striping the fruit of valuable nutrients.

Organic Apples from community orchards give us amazing medicine the saying ‘ and apple a day keeps the docter away’ shows how valued as medicine apples have been in our not too distant past.

All whole plant foods are rich in beneficial, nutritionally active substances called phytochemicals. Plants make up to 100,000 kinds of these substances to protect themselves from insects, infections, the strong energy in sunlight, and other threats. These include the substances that determine the appealing colours, delightful aromas, and delicious flavors of whole plant foods. In apples, over 250 kinds of phytochemicals determine the fragrance alone.

These protective substances are densest in the skin of the apple. This makes sense when you remember that the skin must protect the fruit and seeds from natural forces that could cause premature decay, thus preventing the seed from growing into a new tree.

Apple trees nourish our sense of beauty with their twisting branches, heavy with blooms or fruit. Walking in or even gazing at an apple orchard is soothing and induces a strong sense of well-being and artistic inspiration.

The Wisdom of the Apple Tree- by Glennie Kindred

The sheer extravagant abundance of apples on an apple tree in the autumn is the key to understanding what the apple tree has to teach us. It shows us how to give all, in total trust that all will be replenished. It teaches us to open our hearts to the abundance in our lives. When we, like the apple tree, give all of ourselves freely and openly, our hearts are open to receiving more. Holding back is a symptom of greed and insecurity. The apple's message is to value and celebrate all you have in your life. Many feelings of bitterness, irritation and anger result from feeling a lack of worthiness. These negative feelings create a pattern of imbalance which can significantly reduce the flow of the life force energy in your body. If you do not feel worthy to receive certain things, the way for them to come to you will be blocked, as you have believed it to be. By affirming and feeling thankful for what you have in the present, you open up the channels for your own abundance.

The Apple tree is there to help all of us to keep our trust in times of lack, and teaches us our true power is built up by giving, in open-hearted generosity. The Apple tree's spirit can help those who harm themselves by their miserliness.

Elderberry Decoction Healing

Ripening Elderberries in My Garden (Sept 8th)

I have been nursing a family of snotty, coughing sick folk for the last 10 days all the while protecting myself with the wonderful Elderberries, thank you for being around right at this time of need. It is all very well making syrups and Tinctures and drying things for storage but there is nothing better than Fresh vibrant medicine straight from the tree.


I just started to get a sore throat this morning.....but I guess my body need a rest. So a day in bed directing my personal nurse on how to best make my Elderberry decoction is in order!

1. Firstly go n pick 10-20 heads of the berries, then pick the berries off into a pan with a fork (mind all the spiders) 
2. Cover with about a litre of water.
3. Add a cinnamon stick, 3 cloves, 2 star anise, pinch o grated nutmeg and allspice (from our myrtle bush).
4. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 10 mins mashing with a potato masher to squab all the berries.
5. Strain through a sieve
6. Add half a lemons juice and some honey.
7. Drink freely -makes you wee tons!

Chemical constituents in elderberries help reduce swelling in mucous membranes, such as the sinuses, and thus help to relieve nasal congestion. Elder has anti-inflammatory, antiviral making it perfect for helping the bodies natural defences to shake off flu's n colds. Containing high proportions of flavonoids, which have antioxidant properties helping prevent damage to the body’s cells. 

Flavonoids, an amazing array of over 6,000 different substances found in virtually all plants, are responsible for many of the plant colors that dazzle us with their brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red. from the Latin word flavus meaning yellow their colour in nature

Classified as plant pigments, flavonoids were discovered in 1938 when a Hungarian scientist named Albert Szent-Gyorgyi used the term "vitamin P" to describe them because of the effect they had on the permeability of vascular capillaries.

They are organic compounds called secondary metabolites because they are not directly involved with the normal growth, development or reproduction of an organism, they are mainly involved with a plants defense mechanisms like UV filtration.