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  • A large growth of ripe elderberries is harvested at River Hills Harvest near Hartsburg, Mo. The Associated Press

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June 30, 2012

Elderberries see rise in popularity

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HARTSBURG, Mo. (AP) — Missouri farmer Terry Durham is among those willing to bet the next hot food crop will be a berry now more commonly found in roadside ditches than supermarket shelves.

Folk healers have long used elderberries to concoct herbal remedies, but the federal government is now investing millions of dollars in studying their potential medicinal benefits. At the same time, the berries are enjoying increased popularity among gourmands ready to pay top dollar for locally grown produce.

Those factors have created interest among farmers and potential farmers. More than 150 from Missouri and seven other states gathered earlier this month for a workshop organized by Durham and sponsored by the University of Missouri's Center for Agroforestry.

Durham, who oversees one of the nation's largest commercial elderberry farms on 37 acres of Missouri River bottomlands, believes the crop has huge potential as Americans continue to tap into the medicinal properties of food. Elderberries have long been used in herbal teas and cough syrups.

"We had all this history, and knew that it worked," said Durham, who farms in the 104-person village of Hartsburg. "But we didn't have the science." The National Institutes of Health has given five universities a total of $37.5 million for a five-year study exploring possible medical benefits of elderberries, wild yams and other herbal and dietary supplements. One of the recipients is the University of Missouri's Center for Botanical Interaction Studies, where researchers are in the early stages of studying the antioxidant-rich elderberry's effect fighting prostate cancer.

"You've got 5,000 years of human lore that says this plant is good for human disease," said biochemist Dennis Lubahn, who operates the center. "This is an extraordinarily rich area for research."

Most elderberries used now in foods and herbal remedies still come from Europe, and there are some hurdles for those hoping to grown them in the United States. The dark purple and black berries must be picked by hand — the plant's stems and leaves are toxic to humans.

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