Is elderberry good for your skin? New research 🥳

Lately I’ve noticed multiple skin care products in stores and online that include elderflower or elderberry. Have you? 

This makes me wonder:
1) Is elderflower and elderberry actually good for your skin? 
2) If so, how?   

As you will see, the answers to these 2 questions are 1) generally, yes; and 2) well, that’s complicated.

Get ready to get nerdy; we're going to dive into some science. 

This topic was briefly touched upon by Dr. Isa Kupke in her presentation “Unlocking the Potential of North American Elderberry for Innovative Personal Care Products” at the 2024 Elderberry Workshop. 

After receiving her PhD in Medicinal Plant Science from the University of Praetoria, South Africa, Dr. Kupke joined the University of Missouri where she has been investigating medically interesting compounds in American Elderberry.  

She identified more than 30 known compounds that were suspected to exist in Sambucus canadensis and that also have proven or potential health benefits. She then took extracts of elder berries, leaves, and flowers and chemically analyzed them to find these compounds.

Interestingly, the different plant parts (flower, berry, leaf) had high amounts of different compounds. 

• Elder flowers were particularly high in quercetin, rutin and kaemperol-3-glucoside.

• Elder berries were high in caffeic acid, ferrulic acid and cyanidin-3-O-sambubioside (say that fast 3 times!).  

• Leaves were also high in quercetin, rutin and kaemperol-3-glucoside

All 6 of these compounds have action beneficial to skin as all 6 are anti-oxidants. However, some of the compounds have distinct effects. 

For example, rutin stands out for its “anti-aging” effects by improving skin elasticity and reducing wrinkles (Choi, 2016).  There’s some evidence that ferulic acid helps prevent skin damage (Cleveland Clinic, 2024).  

All but the chemists among us are probably glazing over by now. 

But figuring out what medically valuable compounds exist in which parts of the plant and in what quantities we can expect to find them is key to making this plant useful in our society.  

The complexity of this work overwhelms me (and I’m not even doing the work!).  So much variation exists within American Elderberry.  This is a plant that grows in the wild from sub-tropical Florida to chilly Canada. It has a large genome with over 12 billion base pairs (Prenger, 2024). For comparison we, being human, have ca 3 billion.

Obviously, not all American Elderberry plants are alike. Dr. Kupke’s work addresses this variation by examining different cultivars. It also tracks in which season samples are collected.  In sum, she is gathering data on the composition of the various plant parts (leaf, flower, berry), gathered at different times of year (spring, summer, fall) from different cultivars (ie, Bob Gordon, Ozark, Ranch). Then she is examining the effects of extracts from promising combinations on specific skin afflictions. Her first trials had to do with wound healing, and she presented her data at the workshop.

Ready for some results? Her in vitro (in a petri dish) study of Bob Gordon Summer Leaf, Ozark Summer Leaf, Bob Gordon Fall Leaf, Ozark Fall Leaf and Bob Gordon Spring Leaf extracts on wound healing showed all 5 combinations promoted healing beyond the level of the control sample, and the leaves gathered in summer were most promising.  Next, she intends to study the influence of various extracts on skin inflammation.   

I love that American Elderberry is receiving this attention. Attention is a form of love and I can’t help but think that, as a society, we haven’t always shown plants the love. 

As a proponent of plant power, I believe this attention will be rewarded with insight and look forward to hearing more from Dr. Kupke over the next few years as her studies on American Elderberry progress. We'll keep you informed!

References

Choi SJ, Lee SN, Kim K, Joo da H, Shin S, Lee J, Lee HK, Kim J, Kwon SB, Kim MJ, Ahn KJ, An IS, An S, Cha HJ. Biological effects of rutin on skin aging. Int J Mol Med. 2016 Jul;38(1):357-63. doi: 10.3892/ijmm.2016.2604. Epub 2016 May 24. PMID: 27220601.

Cleveland Clinic. Benefits of Ferulic Acid as Part of Your Skin Care Routine. Accessed 7/9/24 https://health.clevelandclinic.org/ferulic-acid

Prenger, Liz. American Elderberry Breeding Research and Prospects. 1/18/23. Accessed 7/9/24. available at https://youtu.be/4GLB1E94U5w?si=uuyNjLBpmWTm6ssr