Black Currant and Elderberry are the best home remedies we could find for someone afflicted with the common cold.

Please read the descriptions below and see if this is the right home remedy for you.

Remember, these home remedies are not meant as a replacement for your family doctor, please consult your doctor before trying any home remedy.

_Black Currant._

Black currant tea is one of the oldest of old-fashioned remedies for
sore throats and colds. It is made by pouring half a pint of boiling
water on to a large tablespoonful of the jelly or jam. To make the jelly
use the same recipe as for blackberry jelly.

The fresh juice pressed from the fruit is, of course, better than tea
made from the jelly, but as winter is the season of coughs and colds the
fruit is least obtainable when most needed.

_Elderberry._

The elderberry has fallen into neglect of late years, owing to the lazy
and disastrous modern habit of substituting the mineral drugs of the
chemist for the home-made vegetable remedies of our grandmothers.
Nevertheless, the elderberry is one of the most ancient and tried of
medicines, held in such great esteem in Germany that, according to the
German folk-lore, men should take off their hats in the presence of an
elder-tree. In Denmark there is a legend to the effect that the trees
are under the protection of a being known as the Elder-Mother, who has
been immortalised in one of the fairy tales of Hans Andersen.

The berries of the elder-tree are not palatable enough to be used as a
common article of food, but in the days when nearly every garden boasted
its elder-tree few housewives omitted to make elderberry wine in due
season.

It is not permitted to “food-reformers” to make “wine,” but those
readers who are fortunate enough to possess an elder-tree might well
preserve the juice of the berries against winter coughs and colds.

_Preserved Fruit Juice._

The following is E. and B. May’s recipe for preserving fruit juice. Put
the fruit into a preserving-pan, crush it and allow it to simmer slowly
until the juice is well drawn out. This will take about an hour. Press
out the juice and strain through a jelly-bag until quite clear. Put the
juice back into the pan, and to every quart add a quarter of a pound of
best cane sugar. Stir until dissolved. Put the juice into clean, dry
bottles. Stand the bottles in a pan of hot water, and when the latter
has come to the boil allow the bottles to remain in the boiling water
for fifteen minutes. The idea is to bring the juice inside the bottles
to boiling point just before sealing up, but not to boil it. See that
the bottles are _full_. Cork _immediately_ on taking out of the pan,
and then seal up. To seal mix a little plaster of Paris with water and
spread it well over the cork. Let it come a little below the cork so as
to exclude all air.

The juice of the elderberry is famous for promoting perspiration, hence
its efficacy in the cure of colds. Two tablespoonfuls should be taken at
bed-time in a tumbler of hot water.

The juice of the elderberry is excellent in fevers, and is also said to
promote longevity.

_Elderberry Poultice._

“The leaves of the elder, boiled until they are soft, with a little
linseed oil added thereto,” laid upon a scarlet cloth and applied, as
hot as it can be borne, to piles, has been said to be an infallible
remedy. Each time this poultice gets cold it must be renewed for “the
space of an hour.” At the end of this time the final dressing is to be
“bound on,” and the patient “put warm to bed.” If necessary the whole
operation is to be repeated; but the writer assures us that “this hath
not yet failed at the first dressing to cure the disease.” If any reader
desires to try the experiment I would suggest that the leaves be steamed
rather than boiled, and pure olive oil used in the place of linseed oil.
It must also be remembered that no outward application can be expected
to effect a permanent cure, since the presence of piles indicates an
effort of Nature to clear out some poison from the system. But if this
expulsion is assisted by appropriate means the pain may well be
alleviated by external applications. (Pepper should be avoided by
sufferers from piles.)