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Herbs & Cultures

Kallawaya healing knowledge →

Elderflower tea from the Andes

Tea of the flowers of the Andean elder, to sweat out a fever and for coughs.

Traditional use

Time
15 minutes
Makes
1 cup
Peruvian elder

The Andean elder (Sambucus peruviana), rayan in Quechua, grows around villages high in the Andes. Kallawaya healers use the flowers for asthma and other respiratory complaints and to sweat during a fever, as Bastien and Girault described. It is the same use Europeans know from their own elder.

Ingredients

  • 1 tsp dried elderflower (from the Andean elder or the common elder)
  • 250 ml boiling water
  • Honey to taste

Step by step

  1. Pour the boiling water over the flowers.
  2. Cover, steep for 10 minutes and strain.
  3. Drink as hot as you can and then get under the covers to sweat.

Tips

  • The leaves were laid on bruises with fat; the flowers are the part for tea.

Registry

Herbs in this recipe

Read more about effects and safety on each herb’s page.

  • Caution

    South America · Herb · № 884

    Peruvian elder

    Sambucus peruviana

    A tree with white flower umbels and dark berries, related to the European elder. Flowers and leaves are considered sweat-inducing and anti-inflammatory.

    Kallawaya healing knowledge+1

Cultures and traditions

Where the herbs come from

The herbs in this recipe also appear in these traditions.