Mulberries: The Sweet, Stained, Slightly Dangerous Passenger

Ah, the mulberry, Morus to its botanist admirers and a tree of contradictions. For a fruit that looks so harmless, these berries hold stories, history, and even a bit of danger beneath their glossy skins. You may know them from nursery rhymes or lazy summer afternoons, but what you might not know is that mulberries have wandered through the histories of Asia, Europe, and North America, draping themselves in myth, medicine, silk, and scandal.

Foraged mulberries and native botanicals prepared for Trolley’d’s sustainable cocktail program.

The mulberry isn’t just one plant but a rather promiscuous genus, most notably comprising Morus alba, white mulberry, Morus rubra, red mulberry, and Morus nigra, black mulberry, along with various hybrid cultivars. The origins are as diverse as their colour palette: Morus alba hails from India, Morus rubra from eastern and central North America, and Morus nigra from Southwestern Asia and the Iberian Peninsula.

White mulberries, imported to North America in a bid to foster silk production, long ago abandoned their original brief. Like any unruly traveller with a taste for independence, they escaped into the wild and started dotting suburban neighbourhoods across the continent.

Of course, with mulberries, it is not all benevolent berries and sweet silk. The unripe fruit and the white, milky sap lurking in the leaves have a darker side. Those who nibble carelessly on unripe berries may be met with an unexpected gastrointestinal symphony, thanks to the alkaloids hiding within their verdant folds.

It is hard to deny the allure of mulberries, though. Traditional Chinese medicine has employed every part of the mulberry tree, including the root bark, leaves, and fruit, to treat ailments ranging from fevers and coughs to hypertension and high blood sugar. These little berries are antioxidant powerhouses, carrying anthocyanins, polysaccharides, and flavonoids that have attracted serious scientific interest.

Mulberry works beautifully in syrups, shrubs, sours, spritzes, and native botanical cocktails.

In one remarkable study, Morus alba leaf extracts demonstrated a unique ability to aid weight management, reduce fat accumulation, and improve insulin sensitivity by enhancing the activity of brown adipose tissue. Researchers found that the active compound 1-deoxynojirimycin not only helped control glucose metabolism but also modulated gut microbiota, offering a compelling reason to consider mulberry leaves as more than just silkworm fodder.

Silk, Paper, Myth and Scandal: The Mulberry’s Flight Log

Now let’s leave the lab coats behind and enter the rich, velvet folds of history. Mulberries have long played supporting roles on the stage of civilisation. In Ancient China, the white mulberry leaf became the preferred diet of silkworms, and thus the unlikely hero in the drama of the silk trade, a fabric so enchanting it lured traders along the Silk Road and turned emperors into fashion enthusiasts.

The Japanese took their fascination further by crafting Tengujo, the thinnest paper in the world, from mulberry stems. It is a craft so delicate you can see through its tissue-thin surface, a testament to how Morus has wound itself into the cultural tapestry of Asia.

Mulberry trees also became a symbol of doomed love in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Pyramus and Thisbe, the original star-crossed lovers, met their fate under a mulberry tree, their spilled blood forever staining the once white berries a deep, tragic red.

Perhaps the mulberry’s most sobering historical footnote is modern. In 2021, Lori McClintock, wife of U.S. Representative Tom McClintock, fell ill after ingesting white mulberry leaf. Her death, linked in a Sacramento County coroner’s report to dehydration and gastroenteritis associated with white mulberry leaf ingestion, remains a cautionary tale of this plant’s dual nature.

Beyond the science and stories, mulberries are also delicious. Black mulberries, with their complex, tart sweetness, are perfect for jams, wines, jellies, syrups, shrubs, and summer cocktails. They make a beautiful addition to a glass, their deep hues swirling like a Monet painting in motion. At Trolley’d, we love to use mulberries as both ingredient and garnish, an edible ode to their tenacity, flavour, and the history they carry within their juice-stained skins.

Botanical Boarding Pass

Scientific name: Morus spp.

Common names: White mulberry, red mulberry, black mulberry.

Folk names: Tut, Morera, Gelso.

Botanical family: Moraceae.

Native habitat: M. alba, India. M. rubra, eastern and central North America. M. nigra, Southwestern Asia and the Iberian Peninsula.

Toxicity and allergens: Unripe green mulberries and white sap in the stem can cause indigestion and nausea if eaten in large amounts. White mulberry leaf extract may cause gastrointestinal distress depending on the person and amount consumed.

Traditional Uses, Phytochemistry and Cultural Notes

Traditional uses: Mulberries are prevalent in Chinese medicine. Root bark, leaves, and fruit have traditionally been used for fever, cough, hyperlipidaemia, hypertension, and hyperglycaemia.

The fresh fruits can be used in juices, wines, jams, jellies, syrups, desserts, and many other culinary preparations. Mulberry leaf extracts have been used possibly as far back as 4000 years ago in Ancient China, with modern research exploring effects on body weight and blood glucose.

Phytochemistry: The prominent functional compounds in mulberries include anthocyanins, polysaccharides, polyphenols, alkaloids, and flavonoids, all bioactive compounds involved in a variety of physiological processes. The 1-deoxynojirimycin, flavonoids, and polyphenols found in mulberry leaves are likely responsible for many of the reported metabolic effects studied in the literature.

History: Mulberry bark was used by Buddhist monks during the Angkorian Age of the Khmer Empire of Southeast Asia to make paper, which was in turn used to make books known as kraing. The Japanese use kozo, the stems of mulberry trees, to make Tengujo, the thinnest paper in the world. The traditional Romanian plum brandy Țuică has also been aged in barrels made from mulberry wood.

German folklore holds that the mulberry is evil because the devil cleans his boots with mulberry roots. Mulberry trees also appear in Vincent van Gogh’s paintings, most notably Mulberry Tree from 1889. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, a mulberry tree features in the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe, where the fruit’s reddish-purple colour is attributed to the lovers’ blood staining the previously white berries.

Powers and magical uses: In folklore and magical herb traditions, mulberry has been associated with protection, dream work, and warding. Mulberry wood has been described as a protectant against evil, while mulberry leaves appear in traditions connected to psychic dreams and protective sigils.

Foraged mulberries ready for takeoff in Trolley’d’s eco-luxury mobile bar program.