Elder toxicity.

They say that the various species of Sambucus are toxic. They aren't, very.

You'll find the mildly toxic cyanoglycoside sambunigrin in the leaves and unripe fruits of Sambucus species.
The red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa) is the most toxic of the three species, but its toxicity is confined to a tummy ache.
The annual dwarf elder (Sambucus ebulus) is considered completely nontoxic.
The seeds of all Sambucus species contain a resin which is nauseant and diuretic; this resin is destroyed by cooking.
(That's from Buff + v.d.Dunck: Giftpflanzen in Natur und Garten, 1988.)

"It's deadly, it contains cyanide!" say those who don't have a clue. Yeah, right ...
... cyanide is the stuff of detective stories. Cyanoglycosides are found in most if not all rose family plants, and they're the taste behind bitter almonds and amaretto. There's not all that much in elder: the irritation of elder is more due to the resin than the sambunigrin.

The berries of black elder (Sambucus nigra) are made into all sorts of things, as are of course its flowers. It's not wild here, else I'm sure I'd be wild about it. (Blue elder (Sambucus caerulea) and American elder (Sambucus canadensis) are no more; they're subspecies of black elder now.)

I made jam of red elderberries years ago. "Tasty", said those who tried it, and, "Do you have more?". My throat was raw from breathing the fumes while stirring the jam, and the taste (to me) was more of that same raw feeling, so I said, no, I don't have more, nor will I make more, at least for the next few years.

The fruit balls of red elderberry are so tight that they're all moldy inside if you're late in your picking. I've been contemplating making a new batch for the last couple of years, but alas, the berry balls have been over the hill by the time I've remembered to look at the red elderberry bushes.

Making red elderberry jam: Boil the berries with a little water and a bit of sugar, crank through the thingy (1), and bring the now uniform mess to a boil. Seeds will float to the top; pick them off as they do so as they contain most of the whatnots which make raw red elderberry bad for you. Any foam should also be picked off.

(1) I've one of those three-legged hand-cranked apple jam thingies which come with various-size sieves. (I'd love to get the real name for it. Thingy sounds so unprofessional.)

I've seen red elderberry in Oregon as well; their fruit balls were far airier, and I wouldn't expect mold there.

Flowers, leaf and bark of black elder are medicinal; check King's and the rest of them.

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Related entry: Elderflower syrup

Jim: I haven't seen any data

Jim: I haven't seen any data on the flowers of red elderberry, sorry.

Lee: Food mill, that's the word. Mine is white plastic. Thanks!

Ah, but Jim is asking if the

Ah, but Jim is asking if the flowers of red elder can be used like the flowers of black elder. I haven't seen any data on that, and therefore haven't used them.

We don't have black

We don't have black elderberries, but the birds usually leave lots of the red ones on the bushes.

I haven't ever used black

I haven't ever used black elderberry berries, seeing that they don't make berries up here. Ask locally.

To quote from the blog post,

To quote from the blog post, which you evidently just skimmed, not read:
"cyanide is the stuff of detective stories. Cyanoglycosides are found in most if not all rose family plants, and they're the taste behind bitter almonds and amaretto. There's not all that much in elder: the irritation of elder is more due to the resin than the sambunigrin."

and yep, your references are completely off. The work I quote, "Buff + van der Dunck", was a pair of researchers who went through ALL the hospital files on poisonings, and checked what caused the hospital stay. They found no problem with the S. ebulus at all. As S. ebulus is wild in Germany, that means that it's not toxic.

Just goes to show how things get spread

The University of Maryland Complementary herb medicine index (usually quite good), says that dwarf elder contains the most cyanide-like compounds of all elders and should be avoided. And there are instances of children being hospitalized as a result of chewing on elder stems in the US. On the other hand, the word origin of Sambucus indicates its stems may have been used to make a flute-like musical instrument, which weighs in against one's being poisoned by sucking on it.
I understand all (mild and potential?) toxicity of berries is gone once they are cooked (in the case of red elder) or fully ripened (in the case of tall black elder)-- the latter of which I have eaten raw for years.
The studies I have seen that indicate dwarf elder has toxicity that bears caution analyzed the cyanide-like chemical constituents (or precursors of these) in leaves, stems, flowers and berries. True all rose-family have these compounds, but one wouldn't want to chew on apple seeds--nor on particular apricot seeds. Interestingly, some apricots are grown for their edible seeds while others are toxic.
I would never wish to malign the "mother elder" which has been a sacred plant in some Europeans traditions for centuries--and certainly side effects of modern pharms are way off the chart by comparison, but herbs are strong medicine as well and should be honored for that--as your wonderful site certainly expresses in your careful info here.
All I have seen in terms of relative toxicity of dwarf elder was in the US and I wonder if the wild elder in Germany might have a different concentration of the cyanide-like compounds. I know this is true for cherry laurel and the cyanide-like compounds in its berries. There are edible and toxic variations within the same species that hardly seem to be differentiated otherwise-- except that birds love one group of plants whose berries have a sweet taste on being fully ripe and they won't go near the berries of the others which are quite bitter with their cyanide-like compunds.
So the lesson is-- know your plants?
Madronna Holden

Yep, sounds like your annual

Yep, sounds like your annual elders are different from the German ones.

I'll be trying red elder

I'll be trying red elder flowers myself, this year. The green parts are slightly toxic (not a lot, like I say up there ^), but the flowers should have the same effect as the various black (= blue) elders. Somebody said. To a herbalist I know. So I'll give it a shot this year ... because we don't have the black (or blue) elders at all, up here.

Red elders

Thanks for that, Robin! I've given red elder flowers a sniff, this year, and they _stink_. Nonetheless, I'll pick and dry some and see how they work ... this week, cos the show will soon be all over for red elder for this year.