Prunus serotina — the inner bark of the wild black cherry, simmered into the cough syrup that quieted a deep, hacking cough before any drugstore bottle. The original source of 'wild cherry' cough flavor.
Homemade wild cherry bark cough syrup was a fixture of the winter shelf in Black Southern homes — the bottle a grandmother made in fall and reached for all winter when the children took to coughing. It is the home original of the cough syrup the same families would later buy in a store, often without knowing the store flavor came from this very tree.
Wild cherry bark contains compounds (glycosides yielding small amounts of hydrocyanic principle) that act as a sedative to the cough reflex — calming a dry, spasmodic, hacking cough without suppressing necessary clearing. This is the genuine pharmacology behind 'wild cherry' cough syrups still on shelves today. The bark also carries tannins (astringent, throat-soothing) and antioxidant flavonoids. It was the trusted home remedy for the deep coughs of winter colds and bronchitis.
Strip the inner bark (cambium) from young branches or trunk in fall, dry it, and simmer GENTLY in water — do not hard-boil, which drives off the active compounds. Strain, sweeten heavily with honey or cane syrup, and dose by the spoonful. Traditionally combined with honey, sometimes mullein or horehound, for a complete cough syrup.
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