Great question.  First of all, cooked, fully ripe elderberries are safe to eat.  Fully ripe berries are purplish-black and the juice should be bright red. There are some people that have reported to have nausea from eating raw, ripe elderberries.  It is dangerous to eat unripe elderberries as well as any other parts of the plant (stems, leaves, bark, etc); however, most 

Raw, unripe elderberries and other parts of the elderberry plant (stems, leaves, bark, etc) contain some compounds that can become poisonous.  These potentially dangerous compounds are present in the plant as cyanogenic glycosides. Most stone fruits have these compounds in their pits/seeds. Elderberry parts contain a cyanogenic glycoside called sambunigrin. The bacteria in your digestive tract (and bacteria used for wine fermentation) can metabolize this compound and release free hydrogen cyanide. Cyanide binds up oxygen in your bloodstream and prevents it from being released to your cells. Assuming you are healthy, your liver is capable of handling small amount of cyanide with no adverse effects.  If the cyanide dose is too high, then you will develop the symptoms of cyanide poisoning: nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and weakness. If not treated and the dose is high, then people can asphyxiate and could die. This sounds very scary (and it is), but only if you are lazy with handling and preparing your fruit.  There have been elderberry poisonings, but they have been traced back to the presence of other plant material (leaves) in the product (juice, tea) or that the berries were not ripe.

For anything that you make with elderberries, only use the ripe berries.  If you are making anything where you need to crush them (e.g., jam, syrup, juice), make sure that you remove all of the stems, leaves, and any unripe berries before pressing them. Same is true if you are making wine.  You can’t be lazy with this – only fully ripe berries should be processed or eaten.  Fresh elderberries are very perishable and the quality will deteriorate quickly.  Therefore, they are usually refrigerated, frozen, or processed immediately after harvest.  

Various processing methods have been demonstrated to significantly reduce cyanogenic glycosides in a variety of different produce.  Most of this research has been done on cassava since it is the most important food crop with the highest levels of cyanogenic glycosides. The chemistry of these compounds is similar in all plants, so the effect of the processing method should be similarly effective in different types of plants. 

Peeling, grinding, soaking, boiling/cooking, soaking, and fermentation can be effective to reduce the risk. These processes typically breakdown the cyanogenic glycoside (sambunigrin, in the case of elderberry) which leads to the production of cyanide.  Cyanide is very volatile (evaporates at slightly above room temperature), so drying or roasting would effectively remove any low levels of poison from the berries.

It sounds as though you are buying elderberries that have been commercially dried.  Commercial drying is typically performed in a range of 120-140°F for many hours.  Assuming that the processor only processed ripe berries and that they dried them under these conditions, the risk of any residual cyanide is very low.  If you choose to roast them yourself when you make your herbal blend, then are providing even another layer of safety.  

For more information, the University of Vermont has an extensive publication about many facets of elderberry production, harvesting, and processing: https://www.uvm.edu/sites/default/files/media/ElderberryGuideComplete.pdf

Hope this helps!  Please let me know if you have more questions.

Joy

Great question.  First of all, cooked, fully ripe elderberries are safe to eat.  Fully ripe berries are purplish-black and the juice should be bright red. There are some people that have reported to have nausea from eating raw, ripe elderberries.  It is dangerous to eat unripe elderberries as well as any other parts of the plant (stems, leaves, bark, etc); however, most 

Raw, unripe elderberries and other parts of the elderberry plant (stems, leaves, bark, etc) contain some compounds that can become poisonous.  These potentially dangerous compounds are present in the plant as cyanogenic glycosides. Most stone fruits have these compounds in their pits/seeds. Elderberry parts contain a cyanogenic glycoside called sambunigrin. The bacteria in your digestive tract (and bacteria used for wine fermentation) can metabolize this compound and release free hydrogen cyanide. Cyanide binds up oxygen in your bloodstream and prevents it from being released to your cells. Assuming you are healthy, your liver is capable of handling small amount of cyanide with no adverse effects.  If the cyanide dose is too high, then you will develop the symptoms of cyanide poisoning: nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and weakness. If not treated and the dose is high, then people can asphyxiate and could die. This sounds very scary (and it is), but only if you are lazy with handling and preparing your fruit.  There have been elderberry poisonings, but they have been traced back to the presence of other plant material (leaves) in the product (juice, tea) or that the berries were not ripe.

For anything that you make with elderberries, only use the ripe berries.  If you are making anything where you need to crush them (e.g., jam, syrup, juice), make sure that you remove all of the stems, leaves, and any unripe berries before pressing them. Same is true if you are making wine.  You can’t be lazy with this – only fully ripe berries should be processed or eaten.  Fresh elderberries are very perishable and the quality will deteriorate quickly.  Therefore, they are usually refrigerated, frozen, or processed immediately after harvest.  

Various processing methods have been demonstrated to significantly reduce cyanogenic glycosides in a variety of different produce.  Most of this research has been done on cassava since it is the most important food crop with the highest levels of cyanogenic glycosides. The chemistry of these compounds is similar in all plants, so the effect of the processing method should be similarly effective in different types of plants. 

Peeling, grinding, soaking, boiling/cooking, soaking, and fermentation can be effective to reduce the risk. These processes typically breakdown the cyanogenic glycoside (sambunigrin, in the case of elderberry) which leads to the production of cyanide.  Cyanide is very volatile (evaporates at slightly above room temperature), so drying or roasting would effectively remove any low levels of poison from the berries.

It sounds as though you are buying elderberries that have been commercially dried.  Commercial drying is typically performed in a range of 120-140°F for many hours.  Assuming that the processor only processed ripe berries and that they dried them under these conditions, the risk of any residual cyanide is very low.  If you choose to roast them yourself when you make your herbal blend, then are providing even another layer of safety.  

For more information, the University of Vermont has an extensive publication about many facets of elderberry production, harvesting, and processing: https://www.uvm.edu/sites/default/files/media/ElderberryGuideComplete.pdf

Hope this helps!  Please let me know if you have more questions.

Joy