Berry study

The outbreak of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) in China in 2019 rapidly progressed to pandemic status of global importance. SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) is a readily transmissible virus that has a wide-ranging incubation period of 2-14 days (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). The symptoms are often non-specific and include fever, cough, fatigue, diarrhoea and loss of sense of taste and smell. Clinical features range from mild to severe.

Sambucus extract has well documented anti-viral properties and there is evidence that Sambucus nigra has antiviral action against coronavirus in vitro and has been successful in treating influenza viruses in vivo. The aim of our two-arm parallel group randomised control trial was to determine whether ‘Sambucol® Black Elderberry Original Liquid (Sambucus nigra) is effective in reducing the severity of symptoms of COVID-19.

Between January 2021 and March 2022, a total of 204 patents were recruited into the trial and randomised to either receive a placebo (n=102; mean age 43.2 ± 11.6 years; 62.7% female) or Sambucol® (n=102; mean age 43.3 ± 12.7; 71.6% female). The treatment (Sambucol® Black Elderberry Original Liquid or placebo) was to be taken at a dose of 15ml, 4 times a day.

The Sambucol® Black Elderberry Original Liquid was well tolerated by people who took part in the study. There were no serious side effects, although 10% of people reported a symptom that might have been related to Sambucol®, stained lips/tongue (n=3), and dizziness / disorientation (n=3) were the most common reported.

To find out if Sambucol® reduced the severity of COVID-19 symptoms we asked participants to record ‘how well they felt overall’ (wellness score) and how severe their individual symptoms were at regular interval for 28 days following a positive test for COVID-19. At the time it was acknowledged that in most people symptoms lasted for 1-2 weeks, so we hypothesised that if Sambucol® had an effect we would see this by Day 10. When compared to wellness scores at the start of the study, there was slight evidence that those in the group that received Sambucol®, had greater improvement in wellness scores and symptoms in the first 10 days, although this difference did not reach statistical significance. There was no difference in the groups after 28 days.

During the course of the study, COVID-19 vaccinations were introduced and the predominant COVID-19 variant changed from the Delta to the Omicron variant and this might contribute to why the benefit of Sambucol® did not reach significance. Forty percent of the people who took part in the study were infected with the Omicron variant and we found in this group that wellness scores improved to a lesser extent than those infected with the Delta variant. When we looked at specific symptoms, we found that of the most common symptoms, cough, sore throat and loss of taste or smell, there was no sign of a difference between those who received Sambucol® or the placebo

In summary, we found that, people with COVID-19 infection using Sambucol® Black Elderberry Original Liquid by did not appear to experience harmful side-effects and the severity of their symptoms tended to be less than those who did not use Sambucol® Black Elderberry Original Liquid, although the difference is too small to be certain.