Uva UrsiArctostaphylos uva-ursi

Did you know?

• The botanical name says "bear grape" twice: in Greek, arktos is "bear" and staphyle "grape"; in Latin, uva is "a bunch of grapes" and ursus "bear"^[4].

• Black bears and grizzly bears eat the berries, which matter most to them in early spring, and so do many birds and other wildlife^{[3, 4]}.

• Kinnikinnick is an Algonquian word for a smoking mixture, and dried bearberry leaves were one of its main ingredients^{[3, 4, 9]}.

• The leaves stay on the plant all winter, turning reddish or bronze in the cold^{[4, 8]}.

• The tannin-rich leaves give a yellow-brown dye, and in Scandinavia they have been used commercially to tan leather^{[3, 7]}.

• Arbutin, the leaf's signature plant compound, makes up about 5 to 16 percent of the dried leaf^{[2, 5]}.

Origins and history

Uva ursi is a plant of the cold north. It hugs the ground, rarely more than ankle-high, sending out long, trailing stems that form dense evergreen mats^{[3, 7, 8]}. Its leaves are small, thick and leathery, rarely more than 3 centimeters (just over an inch) long^{[2, 3]}. Clusters of little bell-shaped flowers, white or pink, are followed by bright red berries^{[4, 8]}. It grows all around the Arctic and sub-Arctic: in northern Europe and northern Asia, and in North America from Alaska and Labrador south to California, New Mexico and Virginia^{[3, 4, 10]}. It favors rocky and sandy woods, open slopes and banks^{[7, 8]}.

In North America the plant is best known as kinnikinnick, from an Algonquian word for the smoking mixtures in which its dried leaves were a main ingredient^{[3, 4, 9]}. Native peoples also ate the berries, which are dry, mealy and bland when raw: fresh, dried, fried, cooked with game or mixed into pemmican^{[3, 4, 7]}.

In Europe it was the leaf that mattered. Bearberry leaf has been part of European herbal tradition since at least the Middle Ages: it is first written down in the thirteenth-century Welsh texts known as the Physicians of Myddfai, and it was listed in official pharmacopoeias from the early nineteenth century^{[2, 5]}. Today the European Medicines Agency has published a monograph on bearberry leaf, based on its long traditional use^{[1, 2]}.

Traditional uses

Uva ursi leaf has a long, well-documented place in European herbal tradition, and the European Medicines Agency's monograph recognizes its traditional use^{[1, 2]}.

• A leaf tea

  The dried leaves are steeped in hot water or soaked in cold water, and traditionally taken for short periods only. Cold soaking draws out fewer of the leaf's tannins.^{[1, 2, 5, 7]}

• Urinary tract health

  Uva ursi helps promote urinary tract health.*^{[1, 5]}

• Berries as food

  Native peoples of North America ate the berries fresh or dried, fried them, cooked them with game or mixed them into pemmican.^{[3, 4, 7]}

Plant compounds

Uva ursi leaf is best known for arbutin, a phenolic glucoside that makes up about 5 to 16 percent of the dried leaf, together with the related methylarbutin^{[2, 5]}. The leaf is also rich in tannins, mainly gallotannins, and contains flavonoids, triterpenes and piceoside^{[2, 5]}.