Mulberry Helps Control Blood Sugar, and More

Mulberry Helps Control
Blood Sugar, and More

The leaves that silkworms love contain agents
that can significantly improve our health
By Will Block

Ille salubris aestates peraget, qui nigris prandia moris finiet.
— Horace, Satires, 35 B.C.



Mulberry leaves have long been
used in Chinese medicine for the
prevention and treatment of diabetes;
they contain compounds that
suppress high blood sugar levels.



Mulberry Fights Arterial Plaque

Before I forget, a lot of people have asked about implementation strategies using Mulberry for blood sugar control. This page answers that and a whole lot more.


Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush

Chances are, the only thing you knew about mulberries before today was the nursery rhyme from Mother Goose. But why dance around a mulberry bush? Wouldn’t a myrtle be as good, or perhaps a honeysuckle? Not according to the ancient Celts, who believed that dancing around a mulberry bush at the time of the summer solstice would help protect them from fairies. (Not all fairies are nice, you know—some are malicious, and they reach the height of their magic powers at the solstice.) History does not record how successful this strategy was for the Celts, but at least it led to a cute little song.

Some versions of the song call the mulberry a tree, which is botanically correct. Depending on the species—of which there are about a dozen in the genus Morus, family Moraceae—mulberry trees can grow to anywhere from 15 to 70 feet tall (some bush!). Two species are native to the United States, and two more have been naturalized here. Most of the rest are native to the Orient but are widely distributed throughout the warmer temperate regions of Eurasia, Africa, and North America. The plants have a milky sap and bear the fruit for which they are named.

One species, the white mulberry (Morus alba), is renowned as the primary food source for silkworms. Widely cultivated in its native China, this tree provides succulent leaves that the worms eat with relish (well, OK, they eat ’em straight—no relish). The beginning of silk production using mulberry leaves is generally attributed to the Chinese Empress Si-Ling, who lived five millennia ago, c. 2960 B.C. The fruit of the white mulberry (which is also found in the eastern United States) is white to pinkish, unlike the red or black berries of most other Morus species.

According to one source, white mulberry is the species that has been used exclusively in Chinese medicine since A.D. 659.1 The Chinese Pharmacopoeia (1985) lists the leaves, root bark, branches, and fruit as ingredients in medicinal preparations, but other parts, including the sap and wood ash, are also widely used. (It’s hard to imagine how wood ash could have medicinal value, except perhaps for its mineral content. The heat of the fire would have destroyed virtually all biologically active molecules. What little organic matter remained, if any, would consist of combustion-generated compounds, including some that might be carcinogenic.)

Whatever the plant parts, the Chinese prepare them in a great variety of ways. The leaves and root bark are traditionally processed with honey. Fresh leaves and fruit are sometimes juiced for internal consumption, but otherwise, all parts are dried for use in decoctions (internal use) or poultices (external use), to which many health benefits are attributed. The leaves alone contain a wide variety of nutrients, including proteins, sugars, polyphenols, flavonoids, steroids, triterpenes, vitamins, and minerals.2 No wonder the silkworms love them.

A group of nutritional scientists in India has suggested that the leaves of white mulberry might make a good food, because they’re so rich in nutrients, especially protein.3 They propose that a 1:4 mixture of mulberry-leaf powder and wheat flour would be suitable for making paratha, the most common food item of breakfast and dinner in the Indian diet. Since this predominantly vegetarian (mostly grain-based) diet is low in protein and too low in vegetables and fruits for good health, the highly nutritious, nontoxic, and inexpensive mulberry leaves are seen as a potential remedy. Paratha made according to the nutritionists’ proposal has even passed the taste test in studies with volunteers (who did not, however, start producing silk).

  1. Langley L, ed. Encyclopedia of Herbs and Their Uses. Dorling Kindersley, New York, 1995.
  2. Andallu B, Varadacharyulu NC. Antioxidant role of mulberry (Morus indica L. cv. Anantha) leaves in streptozotocin-diabetic rats. Clin Chim Acta 2003;338:3-10.
  3. Srivastava S, Kapoor R, Thathola A, Srivastava RP. Mulberry (Morus alba) leaves as human food: a new dimension of sericulture. Int J Food Sci Nutr 2003;54(6):411-6.



Dancing round the mulberry bush. An abstract reinterpretation of the nursery rhyme, based on a painting by Katherine Shaughnessy.
Mulberry Fights Diabetes



There Are Different Ways to Attack Diabetes



Mulberry Controls Blood Sugar


This beneficial effect occurred in a dose-dependent manner. The doses were, however, very large: 0.1–0.5 g/kg of body weight, which, for a 70-kg (154-lb) human, would be 7–35 g. (A lower dose, 0.02 g/kg, corresponding to 1.4 g for a human, was ineffective.) Nonetheless, the researchers suggested that mulberry extract might be beneficial in preventing human diabetes by suppressing intestinal alpha-glucosidase activities.

Mulberry Does Better than Prescription Drug



Mulberry significantly reduced fasting
blood glucose levels in the diabetic
men, indicating that it could be
useful for controlling diabetes. It also
lowered the men’s cholesterol levels.



Mulberry Protects Blood-Cell Membranes




Dance for Your Life!





Caution: If you have diabetes, do not take any supplement that may affect your blood sugar levels without first consulting your physician. Diabetes is a serious disease requiring careful professional management.


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