Edible Uses:
The bearberry fruit is edible, raw or cooked. Native Americans fried or dried the berries for edible use.
The Okanogan-Colville cooked the berries with venison or salmon, dried them into cakes and ate the cakes
with salmon eggs. While the berries themselves are not tasty, they are used in jellies, jams and sauces.
The berry is also useful as an emergency food if there is nothing else available to eat.
Medicinal Uses:
Bearberry contains arbutin, methylarbutin, a bitter principle, ursolic acid, tannic acid, gallic acid,
some essential oil and resin, hydroquinones (mainly arbutin, up to 17%), tannins (up to 15%), phenolic
glycosides and flavonoids.
The leaves are picked any time during the summer and dried for use in infusions, liquid extracts, medicinal
tea bags and tablets. The plant has the following claimed properties: anti-lithic, aromatic, astringent,
disinfectant, diuretic, lithontripic, sedative (renal), stimulant (mild), tonic, urinary antiseptic. It
has been used to treat arthritis, back pain (lower), bed wetting, bile problems, bladder infections, bloating,
bright's disease, bronchitis, cararrh of the bladder, cystitis, diabetes (by removing excessive sugar
from the blood), diarrhea, fevers, fluid retention, gallstones, gonorrhea, headache (smoked), haemorrhoids,
indigestion, kidney stones, kidney infections, liver problems, lung congestion, excessive menstration,
nephritis, obesity, pancreatitis, prostate gland weakness, rheumatism, chronic urethritis, vaginal discharge,
vaginal diseases, and water retention. It is claimed to strengthen the heart muscle and urinary tract,
return the womb to its normal size after childbirth, and prevents uteral infection. It is also claimed
to be a powerful tonic for the sphincter muscle of the bladder so it helps with bladder control problems.
It has a strong bacteriostatic action against Staphylococci and E. coli. The leaves have strong astringent
properties.
Bearberry is relatively safe, though large
doses may cause nausea, green urine, bluish-grey skin, vomiting, fever, chills, severe back pain, ringing
in the ears (some people can withstand up to 20g and others show signs of poisoning after just 1g); take
no more than 7-10 days at a time.
It should not be used by people who are pregnant,
breast feeding, nor in the treatment of children (under 12) and patients with kidney disease. Drug interactions
have been recorded with diuretics, as well as drugs that make the urine acidic (such as ascorbic acid
and Urex).
Native Americans used bearberry tea to treat inflammation
of the urinary tract, urethritis, kidney stones, and cystitis. The Cheyenne used the tea to treat back
sprains. Some Native American tribes powdered the leaves and applied them to sores. Other tribes drank
it to treat venereal diseases. The berries were also made into a tea that was used to ward off obesity.
Early European settlers in the Americas used the leaves taken internally as an astringent to treat nephritis,
kidney stones and other diseases of the urinary system.
Other Uses:
In Russia and Sweden, they use the leaves for tanning leather, because of the high tannin produced. The
mashed berries can be rubbed on the insides of coiled cedar root baskets in order to waterproof them.
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Edible and medicinal plant: see below.
