30/09/2025
A blackberry syrup. I often stumble across old recipes when researching herbs, and I thought I would try making some of them. Recently, I made this simple blackberry syrup, given by 20th Century herbalist, Maurice Méssegué, for treating diarrhoea in babies. The recipe uses half ripe and half unripe blackberries and interestingly, black mulberries have been used in a similar way.
It’s worth tasting a pale, unripe berry to experience its sourness and astringency and there are still a few around in the hedges. These drying, mouth-puckering flavours tell you that tannins are present, and it’s the astringency of these compounds that would ease the diarrhoea.
The ripe, dark berries are rich in compounds such as anthocyanins and flavonols which have anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. As most cases of diarrhoea have viral or bacterial origin, these herbal constituents are an essential part of the medicine.
As with most of the old recipes there are no explicit instructions so, I simmered the berries for 20 minutes and then strained the berries out, measuring the volume of the resulting liquid. I decided to make a strong syrup with twice the weight of sugar to volume of liquid. It set into a jam-like consistency, I think because I pushed a fair amount the fruit pulp through the sieve too.
Having a means of treating this common condition would have been essential, and a syrup could be easily administered to a baby, unlike an infusion or decoction. A strong syrup would also last the winter and is ready to hand.
Please do not take this as medical advice!
