Bilberry
Bilberry LATIN NAME: Vaccinium myrtillus
FAMILY NAME: Ericaceae
In the true sense of the word, this berry is a real eye-opener. I certainly think it has helped me avoid visual problems despite a family history of eye disorders. My mother and her brothers were all but blind in the last decade of their lives, and a cousin of mine suffers from macular degeneration--a disease caused by a breakdown of the macula, a dot-size part of the retina that allows a person to read, thread a needle, and see other fine details clearly. When the macula doesn't work properly, it causes blurriness or darkness in the center of vision.
I mentioned this family history of degenerative eye disease during a recent visit to my ophthalmologist. He checked and pronounced my retinas clean for now, but keeping my maculae in good shape is one of the reasons I take bilberry. It may not yet be on America's list of top 10 herbs, but it's on mine--and its popularity is growing as consumers discover the magic of bilberry's most important compounds, anthocyanosides. I believe bilberry can slow down visual degeneration, if not actually improve vision.
In addition, recently published studies have convinced me that bilberry--along with its cousins, the blueberry and cranberry--have even greater beneficial effects, both on specific ailments and overall good health.
What Bilberry Is and What It Can Do
The bilberry is an Old World equivalent of our North American blueberry. Like its relative, the bilberry is a food as well as a medicinal plant. As early as the sixteenth century, it was mixed with honey to create a syrup called rob, which was used to treat diarrhea.
About the size of a black currant, the bilberry is a round bluish fruit that grows on a small shrub that thrives in England, Scandinavia, and Siberia. The name bilberry is derived from the Danish, bollebar, meaning dark berry (and it is darker, at least inside, than our American blueberry). It is also known as Whortleberry, Black Whotles, and bleaberry. Some varieties are said to bear white fruits. These would be deficient in anthocyanosides, which are what give the bilberry its dark color.
Bilberries, when eaten fresh off the shrub, have a slightly acidic flavor. When cooked with sugar, they make an excellent preserve. In some European countries, the fruit is used for coloring wine.
Eyes-Wise in the West
Because it is more plentiful in Europe, bilberry is more widely accepted there than in North America. In fact, the berry is almost unheard of in the eastern United States and Canada. But plants rather similar to bilberry, such as dwarf bilberry, mountain blueberry, western blueberry, Mathers, and California huckleberry, are found farther west, from British Columbia south to Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. My friend and colleague botanist Leigh Broadhurst tells me that bilberry is very popular in the West with an unlikely menagerie of users: sunbelt seniors in Tucson--sometimes with sunburnt eyes but mostly just getting on in years--and urban professionals in Seattle and Vancouver, likely trying to read in dimly lit coffee bars against the gray, rainy backdrop of the Pacific Northwest coastal climate. They must be using commercial imports, as I have no record of their being commercially grown in the West.
| DR. DUKE'S NOTES During World War II, the British gave bilberry products to Royal Air Force pilots to improve their night vision when they flew night missions. |
Bilberries have attained folk fame for treating vision disorders. Traditional herbalists still recommend teas of bilberry fruit, combined with other herbs, to improve deteriorating vision. bilberry leaves were a major component of antidiabetic teas in folk medicine, and while people still use them today, I can't endorse them because of their potential toxicity.
bilberry is best-known today for improving vision disorders stemming from degeneration of the retina, the blood vessels which supply the retina, or both. These disorders include my own personal concern, macular degeneration, along with maculitis (an unspecified inflammation of the maculae), retinitis pigmentosa, poor night vision, and retinopathy. bilberry may also help glaucoma and cataracts.
| FROM MY SCIENCE NOTEBOOK bilberry is what experts call a phytomedicine--that is, a healing substance rich in phytochemicals. bilberry is a good source of phytochemicals, pigments called anthocyanins and related polyphenols. The pigments are molecules that give the bilberry and its cousins their deep red, blue, or purple colors. The phytochemicals help stabilize the walls of capillaries, our smallest blood vessels. Like our joints and bones, the insides of our blood vessels are lined with connective tissue comprised of proteins, including collagen, elastin, and proteoglycan. The strength and flexibility of these connective tissues may be improved by bilberry. The result: the integrity of the eye's retina is maintained better or longer. |
How Bilberry Can Help
bilberry can be used to treat a variety of vision problems and can also be taken as a preventive measure against deteriorating vision. Here's a peek at some of its best-known applications:
Cataracts. Nearly 13 million Americans age 40 and older have cataracts, a clouding of the eye's lens. Cataracts become more common with age, possibly because the lens receives less nourishment as you get older. As a result, proteins in the eye begin to break down, causing the lens to become cloudy. Eventually, it can seem as if you are constantly looking through dense fog or haze.
In one impressive study, 48 out of 50 patients treated with bilberry extract and vitamin E arrested the progression of their cataracts. Italian researchers in the late 1980s found that a mixture of bilberry and vitamin E stopped cataract growth in 9 out of 10 cases. What's going on? In their useful book, Prescription for Natural Healing, James Balch, M.D., and his wife, Phyllis, a certified nutritional consultant, suggest that bilberry extracts contain bioflavonoids, which help remove harmful or undesirable chemicals from the retina.
| ALL IN THE FAMILY: CRANBERRY I have six cranberry plants thriving in my herbal vineyard. As well they should. After all, cranberries, like blueberries, are an American original. Wild cranberries have been used by Native Americans for centuries and were quickly adopted by the pilgrims when they arrived in New England. Some native tribes boiled the dried cranberries and seasoned them with maple sugar. The English settlers found that this sweetened concoction made an excellent sauce for meats, including the traditional Thanksgiving turkey. But the reason I keep a stash of cranberries in my garden has little to do with Thanksgiving--although I must admit it is certainly pleasing to stroll out into the vineyard and gather my own for this important holiday. Nor do I grow them for the esthetic beauty--although their pink blooms in early summer are appealing and their bright red berries are scintillating when ready for autumn harvest. The real reason I keep cranberries handy is much more pragmatic: They are a medicinal powerhouse. How Cranberry Can Help The cranberry has been used therapeutically since the seventeenth century for a number of conditions including stomach ailments, liver problems, vomiting, and appetite loss. Early New England sailors reportedly ate these vitamin C rich berries to fend off scurvy. The power of the cranberry is well-known in fighting urinary tract infections. The reason, evidently, is that the condensed tannins in cranberries prevent bacteria such as E. coli--the most common cause of infection--from attaching to the walls of the bladder and urethra. Since they can't attach themselves, they're more easily excreted with the urine and less likely to trigger symptoms. Cranberries contain more than a dozen compounds such as flavonols, catechins, and anthocyanins that may contribute to the relief of urinary tract infections. Because bilberry is rich in the same beneficial chemical compounds, it stands to reason that bilberry also may be helpful in treating urinary tract infections--and it's not quite so tart. Like bilberries, cranberries also have been shown to lower blood sugar. cranberry juice has a reputation, deserved or not, for alleviating or preventing gout, perhaps by acidifying the urine. Cranberries might even have some Viagra-like effects, making it a potent weapon for those of you who suffer from urogenital problems previously known as frigidity and impotence. How to Take It and How Much Most cranberry drinks contain between 10 and 33 percent juice, though these beverages may be sweetened with other juices so the manufacturer can claim the product is 100 percent juice. So read the food label on the container carefully. I generally recommend drinking 3 ounces a day to prevent urinary tract infection, and up to 32 ounces daily as a treatment. Capsules containing 500 to 800 milligrams of dried cranberry powder are also available if you want to avoid sugar or sweeteners that are usually added to beverages. Two capsules are roughly the equivalent of 1 fluid ounce of cranberry juice. So to get the same preventive effect as the juice, you'd need to take six capsules daily. Cautions There are no known major side effects of cranberry, although drinking large amounts of the juice--three or four quarts daily--may trigger diarrhea. Cranberries should not be used in place of antibiotics during an acute urinary tract infection, but they may be used as an adjunct treatment. |
Glaucoma. I have a genetic susceptibility to glaucoma. Often called the silent thief of sight, this disease, which usually strikes slowly, painlessly, and without warning, afflicts more than three million Americans. To understand how glaucoma robs vision, imagine that your eye is like a small sink. The faucet is a gland behind the iris that constantly produces fluid that bathes the eye. The drain has a mere 1/50-inch-wide opening. As you age, this drain tends to clog, and as a result, fluid builds up in the eye and increases pressure on the optic nerve. As the pressure increases, the nerve slowly begins to die and your peripheral (side) vision fades. Untreated, this condition eventually leads to almost total blindness.
Fortunately, after carefully checking my eyes, my ophthalmologist seems to think I may have outrun it--in other words, if I don't have it yet, the chances are good I won't get it at all. bilberry, in combination with vitamin C and rutin, may help keep your eyes healthy. The vitamin C and rutin (found in pansies) can actually help lower the pressure within the eyes, and the compounds in bilberries called anthocyanosides retard the breakdown of the vitamin C, allowing it to do its job of protecting your eyes even better.
| WHAT NEW RESEARCH TELLS US bilberry is best known for improving vision disorders, but new research suggests that it may be useful in treating a whole host of other health problems. Recent studies have demonstrated bilberry's efficacy in treating circulatory complications due to diabetes or hypertension, bruising, capillary fragility, varicose veins, poor circulation, hemorrhoids, and Raynaud's disease. bilberry's beneficial effects may not stop there. In cell cultures, scientists have used anthocyanoside extracts to inhibit certain destructive enzymes--enzymes that degrade collagen and other connective tissue proteins. This type of degradation is a feature of atherosclerosis, pulmonary emphysema, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoarthritis. These conditions also benefit from higher levels of antioxidant protection, which bilberry and its cousin berries provide in abundance. So bilberry might help these conditions, too. |
Macular degeneration. Macular degeneration may be linked to aging, since it most often strikes in later life. But what really triggers this malfunction is still a mystery. Family history, as in my case, is a prime suspect as are atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), diabetes, and ultraviolet light. bilberry can help slow down the degeneration process by preventing free radicals from damaging the macula and also by strengthening the capillaries in the retina.
Poor night vision. As you age, your eyes need more light to work properly. And in order to see well at night, your pupils have to get very large. Unfortunately, as you get older, your pupils simply don't dilate as well as they used to. bilberry may help compensate for these changes. It is, for example, reported to significantly increase rhodopsin production within the eye. Rhodopsin is a purple pigment in the retinal rod cells--the cells used for night vision.
I mentioned my own worsening night vision to my ophthalmologist, who recommended glasses. But I will continue to supplement with fresh berries and bilberry capsules, and I will continue to enjoy those bilberry cousins, blueberries and cranberries, with my cereal in the morning, particularly if I have a predawn or postsunset drive ahead.
Retinopathy. A common complication of diabetes, retinopathy is a gradual visual deterioration caused by reduced circulation in the blood vessels that supply the retina. To compensate, the body creates new blood vessels in an effort to increase the blood supply to the eye, but these are typically weak and fragile--they leak and cause serious hemorrhaging in the eyes. Left unchecked, retinopathy can cause complete, irreversible blindness.
bilberry helps strengthen blood vessels leading to the eye, improving circulation to the retina, which, in turn, enables it to function better. Studies have shown that 400 milligrams per day of standard bilberry extract reduced the tendency toward eye hemorrhaging in retinopathy patients, likely because bilberry may strengthen the blood vessels in the eye.
| ALL IN THE FAMILY: BLUEBERRY I am a plant taxonomist by training, one of those botanists who studies the naming and identification of plants. Every plant has its own two-word scientific name in Latin, consisting first of the genus, followed by the species. Genus and species are the last two levels in the hierarchy of taxonomy, so every plant in a genus is closely related and every species is one of a kind. We taxonomists also like to tack on the name or initials of the scientist who first assigned the scientific name of the plant. The generic name of the bilberry, Vaccinium, is the same as that of the blueberry and cranberry (see "All in the Family: Cranberry" above). Think of them as cousins, members of the same large family. A closer pharmaceutical analogy is to think of them in the same way you think about generic prescription drugs. (These are the drugs beloved by your HMO due to their lower prices. Never mind how much could really be saved by prescribing the herbal alternative!) A generic prescription is one of several nearly identical forms of a drug, more or less interchangeable. The generic has the same basic actions, but it may be a little weaker or more impure, or a little stronger and purer, than the name brand drug it's knocking off. I think of the bilberry, blueberry, and cranberry as generic phytomedicines. If anthocyanins are the active ingredients, then the bilberry seems to be the most potent. But if you can't get the "name brand" bilberry, you can substitute a "generic" blueberry or cranberry. And both blueberries and cranberries have beneficial health effects in their own right. The Blueberry Murder Believe it or not, the blueberry and I once got dragged into a murder trial in Maryland. I was called by both prosecution and defense lawyers to testify about the side effects that might result from drinking too much blueberry root tea. It seems that the defendant had allegedly imbibed both the tea and a considerable quantity of alcohol just before the murder. At the time, I had dozens of facts at my fingertips about blueberry leaves and fruit. But if you'll pardon the pun, I had to dig around to learn more about the uses of the root. My own previous research uncovered Algonquian (Native American) use of the roots for urinary complaints. I further checked Uses of Plants for the Past 500 Years, which contains an account from Peter Smith, author of The Indian Doctor's Dispensary, last printed back in 1901. According to Smith, blueberry root was the best of all camp medicines, used for everything from ague (fever) to childbirth, cholera, colic, cramps, epilepsy, hysteria, spasms, uretal inflammation, and hiccups. Smith even claimed that blueberry root stimulated the nervous system, although modern studies suggest otherwise. Other writers offered up similar broad claims for the root. A decoction was said to be good for diarrhea and other bowel ailments. Gargled, it was supposed to ease sore throats and mouths. More telling for my purpose, however, was the suggestion that crushed roots and berries, when mixed in gin, were effective in treating dropsical afflictions (fluid retention or edema) and gravel (bladder and kidney stones). So there is, after all, an early precedent for mixing alcohol and blueberry root. I had to leave it to the lawyers, though, to figure out whether to use it to convict--or to dismiss the case. By the way, I don't use the roots myself, even in gin. Blueberry Lore blueberry was very important to many Native Americans both as a food and a medicinal plant. Menominee Indians, for example, would dry the fruits like raisins for winter use and eat them mixed with dried corn, sweetened with maple sugar, as a special feast. The Iroquois reportedly mixed blueberries with their muffins, a culinary accomplishment celebrated again just this morning at my own breakfast table. A less appealing dish, at least to a near-vegetarian like myself, was a Chippewa combination of dried blueberries, moose fat, and deer tallow. Cooked long over a fire, it produced a blueberry pemmican said to last two years. Native Americans also used blueberries for medicinal purposes--in fact, they may have influenced European thinking about the bilberry, which has been used as a food plant since time immemorial but as a medicinal plant only relatively recently, since the sixteenth century. The Ojibwa dried flowers of Vaccinium angustifolum, the lowbush blueberry, over hot coals and inhaled the fumes to treat "madness." The Ojibwa took the leaf decoction to "purify the blood," possibly a way to lower blood sugar. Algonquians used a blueberry leaf tea for colic, labor in childbirth, and following miscarriages. And various Native American tribes often added blueberry leaves to their smoking mixes. What Blueberry Is and What It Can Do The blueberry is a true-blue American food, one of the few food plants native to North America still found on American tables today (although it's notable that Native Americans used more than 1,000 food plants at the time Columbus arrived). It needs no introduction to most readers: It grows on low bushes in various parts of the United States and Canada, including Maine, and can be cultivated in all of the contiguous 48 states. Its round, sweet, blue-purple fruit is a favorite on cereal, in muffins, pancakes, and pies--although the best and most delicious way to eat them is fresh from the plant, picked in season. Apart from its considerable culinary attributes, recent studies support my hunch that the blueberry shares medicinal attributes with its cousin the bilberry. Both blueberries and bilberries are noteworthy for their antioxidant capacity, but bilberry is by far the richer source of that miracle substance anthocyanoside. Still, blueberries are known as the vision fruit in Japan, where they are reputed to help relieve eyestrain. And blueberries are emerging as the single most ferocious food in the supermarket for halting the forces that age you. In tests at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Human Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, blueberries beat out 39 other common fruits and vegetables in antioxidant power--even such heavyweights as kale, strawberries, spinach, and broccoli. In fact, to get the same amount of antioxidants in ½ cup of blueberries, you'd have to eat ¾ cup of strawberries, 1¼ cups of orange sections, or 2 2/3 cups of corn. Over time, as you probably well know, a diet rich in blueberries and other antioxidants can not only protect your vision but also protect your arteries, wrinkle-proof your skin, and strengthen your body's natural defenses. There's even some evidence that blueberries also prevent urinary tract infections and may help improve short-term memory. The beneficial antioxidant activities of blueberries seem to be concentrated in the skin rather than the fruit. I suspect that cultivated blueberries have proportionately more water and fewer antioxidants than wild ones. So if I were looking for blueberries, I'd try to get hold of wild ones first, and then as a last resort, cultivated varieties. How to Take It and How Much Fresh blueberries are available year-round but are least expensive from May through September, when the supply comes from the United States and Canada. Look for berries that are dark blue, with a frosty bloom. Store fresh berries in your refrigerator for up to two weeks, and wash them just before you use them; otherwise, they'll get mushy. Ronald Prior, Ph.D., head of the USDA Phytochemical Laboratory at Tufts University and the scientist who championed the secret power of blueberries, is so impressed with these azure nuggets that he now recommends adding ½ cup to your diet every day--a far cry from our current average intake of about 2½ cups a year! |
How to Take It and How Much
bilberry fruit is available in several forms: fresh, unprocessed fruit, which can be hard to find, and bilberry extracts and capsules, which are more widely available. Personally, I'm hoping one day to harvest bilberries from my herbal vineyard, but for most people, I recommend a standardized product with known levels of anthocyanosides. Extracts should be standardized to 36 percent anthocyanosides, and capsules to 25 percent anthocyanosides.
Effective doses used on patients in research studies are in the range of 320 to 480 milligrams of extract or up to two 400- to 500-milligram capsules per day. Lower doses of a 25 percent extract in the range of 80 to 160 milligrams three times per day have also been shown to be effective. Don't try these higher dosages on your own without consulting your doctor.
As a preventive measure, if you have access to unprocessed bilberries, I recommend 20 to 60 grams of dried fruit or 100 to 300 grams of fresh fruit per day. If you are using bilberry in extract or capsule form, 80 to 100 milligrams three times per day is a reasonable dose.
Useful Combinations
bilberry can be highly effective when taken in combination with other herbs, vitamins, and vitamin-rich foods.
Carrots. Don't overlook the familiar! I heartily subscribe to the maxim that carrots help our eyesight. Carrots are jam-packed with beta-carotene and other carotenoids, the precursors of vitamin A. These compounds, which make up the red, yellow, and orange pigments in plants, are converted into vitamin A in the body. vitamin A is essential to make the visual pigment in our eyes. Carrot and carrot-based juices are helpful, but my data suggest that about half the beta-carotene is lost when you juice carrots, compared to just eating them as is or blending the whole carrot.
Rutin. Add rutin to your regimen as well. A suggested dose is 20 milligrams three times a day. Although buckwheat is popularly cited as a source of rutin, it's fairly common in lots of plants, also. I once calculated that one edible pansy flower would give you about 20 milligrams.
Vitamin C. bilberry may work synergistically with vitamin C and rutin to lower the pressure within the eye characteristic of glaucoma. Some people respond well to 1 gram of vitamin C.
Caution: Contraindications, Interactions, and Side Effects
bilberry fruit, extract, and capsules have no known interactions with commonly prescribed drugs and have no reported contraindications.
Pregnancy alert. bilberry is reported to be safe to use during pregnancy and lactation, but I always recommend checking with your doctor.
Diarrhea. While there are no known side effects from using bilberry extracts in recommended dosages, too many fresh berries may cause diarrhea and/or a bluish black stool. On the other hand, dried bilberry fruits are recommended for checking diarrhea because they concentrate tannins and pectin.
Toxicity alert. bilberry leaves can be poisonous if consumed over a long period of time or in great quantity. Commission E (a German panel of experts roughly equivalent to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) does not sanction the bilberry leaf for therapeutic use. In animal studies, daily long-term administration of 1.5 grams of bilberry leaf per kilogram of body weight per day has been lethal. Although bilberry leaf teas are occasionally recommended, I suggest avoiding them.
