Hawthorn useful properties and contraindications
Useful and healing properties of hawthorn blood-red
Family Rosaceae - Rosaceae
The generic name comes from the Greek kra-taios - strong, which characterizes the properties of hawthorn wood. The species definition is formed from two Greek words oxys - acute and akantha - prickly. The species definition of sanguinea originated from the Latin sanguis - blood, in this species of hawthorn the young branches are covered with a purple-red or brownish-purple bark, and the fruits are blood-red.
High bush or small tree up to 4 m high. The shoots are covered with a purple-brown bark and bear thick straight spines up to 4 cm long. Leaves are obovate, with a wedge-shaped base, up to 6 cm long.and up to 5 cm wide, coarse toothed, sometimes shallow 3-7-lobed. Inflorescences - dense multifloral scutes. Flowers with a yellowish-white corolla to 1.5 cm in diameter, 20 stamens, ending with purple anthers and 3-4( less often 2 or 5) columns. Fruits are globose, up to 1 cm in diameter, bright red, with mealy flesh and 3-4( less often 2 or 5) strong seeds. Blooms in June, the fruits ripen in September. Propagated by seeds and root offspring. Seedlings grow rather slowly. Fruits from 10-15 years. Life expectancy is 200 and even 300 years.
Geographical spread of .Hawthorn were known in ancient times. There is evidence that they grew on our planet in the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era. Various species of hawthorn are distributed mainly in North America. Significantly less in Europe and Asia. Of the 1,250 hawthorn species growing in temperate and subtropical climate, North America accounts for 1,125. 74 wild-growing hawthorn species grow on the territory of the Soviet Union and 89 are introduced into the culture.
In Belarus, in the south-western and southern regions, there is only onewild-growing species - hawthorn otgnotachezhelistikovy - Crataegus curvise-pala Lindm. Now he is referred to as a prickly one. It grows along the banks of rivers and streams, in the undergrowth of thinned plain forests and shrub thickets.
Wildly grows in the eastern regions of the European part and in the southern part of Siberia. It has long been cultivated in dust cover belts, roadside plantations, parks and squares far beyond the natural range. In natural conditions, grows on the fringes and clearings of forests, less often under the canopy of light plantations in river valleys, sometimes forms thickets of small areas.
Fruits contain organic acids, sugars, pectin substances, sorbitol, various vitamins, phenolic compounds and other biologically active substances. The content of ascorbic acid varies from 18 to 100 mg / 100g of raw material( depending on the species), 13-carotene - from 0.4 to 2.7 mg. The fruit contains 0.4 mg / 100 g of vitamin K. Phenolic compounds of hawthorn fruit include anthocyanins, leucoanthocyanins, catechins, flavonols, phenolic acids, etc. Anthocyanins are relatively few in most species, more leucoanthocyanins( 400-1,500 mg / 100 g).The fruits of hawthorn blood-red are also rich in anthocyanins( up to 1200 mg / 100 g).In the flavonoid compounds of fruits, hyperin, vitexin, vitexin-rhamnoside were isolated and identified. Phenolic acids are mainly represented by chlorogenic and coffee. As the fruit ripens, the accumulation of flavonols with a simultaneous decrease in the concentration of ascorbic acid.
In fruits, 0.7-3.4% of coumarins are found, up to half of which are oxycoumarins characterized by the ability to lower the prothrombin index. Triterpenic acids of hawthorn fruit are mainly ursol and oleanolic. In fruits of some types of hawthorn, 4-6 mg / 100 g of vitamin E.
are found. Fruits are rich in pectin substances - 1,9-6,1% on raw material. Pectin substances are characterized by a good gelling ability. Attention is drawn to the rather high content of sorbitol in the fruit pulp, which serves as a substitute for sugar in diabetic patients.
Preparations from fruits and flowers are prescribed for cardiovascular diseases as a means of toning the heart muscle. They have antihypertensive and soothing properties, are part of the popular drug "Cardiovalen".
Collection and drying. Collection of flowers is produced at the beginning of flowering, when most of them have not yet blossomed, in dry sunny weather. They are torn off or cut by a pruner, dried, scattered in a thin layer in attics, under sheds and in other well-ventilated shaded areas. The dried flowers are packed in clean sacks or plywood boxes lined inside with clean wrapping paper. Store in a dry, shaded and ventilated room.
Gather also the ripe fruit of hawthorn. They are separated from the stems, darkened, diseased and damaged by pests of fruits. Dry at a temperature of no higher than 50 °.Finished raw materials are packed in fabric bags of 30-50 kg. Store in a dry, darkened, well-ventilated place on podtovarnikah or racks.
Medicinal raw materials .Hawthorn flowers - Flores Crataegi - dried inflorescences or individual flowers with peduncles up to 3.5 cm long. Odor is weak, peculiar;the taste is slightly harsh.
Art.272 GFH allows a moisture content of not more than 14%;ash not more than 11%;other parts of the plant( individual pedicels, screes, leaves, etc.) no more than 3%;impoverished flowers not more than 3.5%;organic impurity not more than 0.5%;mineral impurity not more than 0.5%.
The flowers of the hawthorn can be mixed with Prunus spinosa L., which are characterized by the presence of a wide-calyx calyx with non-ciliated ciliate sepals, along the veins of the petals, sharp or blunt hairs with an enlarged base are visible( under the magnifying glass).
Fruits of hawthorn - Fructus Crataegi are round or oval-spherical in shape, firm, wrinkled, dark red or brownish-orange, sometimes with white coating( crystallized sugar).The length of the fruit is 8-14 mm, diameter 6-10 mm. From above there is a ring rim with five denticles( remains of sepals), sometimes it is absent. In the fruiting pulp are from 1 to 5 bones( most often 2-3), inside which is located one seed. The taste of the fruit is sweetish.
Art.289 GPH allows a moisture content of not more than 14%;ash not more than 3%;overripe, burnt and blackened fruits not more than 3%;unripe, pale-no-colored fruits not more than 1%;with unseparated pedicels, crushed fruits, admixtures of individual bones and twigs not more than 2%;organic impurity not more than 1%;mineral impurity not more than 0.5%.
Hawthorns are decorative due to the bright bark, the abundance of leaves, large inflorescences and fruits, so they are bred in populated areas, roadside plantings, etc. They are unpretentious, well tolerate the haircut, have large spines, which allows them to be used to create hedges. Good honey plants. Fruits and leaves served as a substitute for tea. The bark can be used as a tanning agent. Leaves and bark used to be used for painting wool and fabrics in red-brown tones. In the mountains thickets of hawthorn have an important soil-protective value, so they must be protected. Fruits do not crumble for a long time and serve as food for birds that winter with us.
The active principles of hawthorn reduce the excitability of the heart muscle, increase its contractility, improve coronary and cerebral circulation, relieve tachycardia( heart palpitations), arrhythmia( heart rhythm disturbances), and relieve a painful sensation in the heart.
Use hawthorn medications with vegetoneurozah with the phenomena of circulatory disorders, with violations of the rhythm of cardiac activity( tachycardia) and hypertension.
Hawthorn preparations lower the excitability of the central nervous system, lead to a decrease in blood pressure in the initial forms of hypertension, help with insomnia, especially in cardiac patients, and in hyperthyroidism, and all this leads to an improvement in the general condition of patients.
Tincture of hawthorn flowers with vasospasms is much more effective than tinctures from fruits.
In homeopathy, hawthorn medications are used for functional disorders of cardiac activity, cardiac weakness, after the transferred diseases, with angioneuroses, the initial form of hypertension, insomnia, hyperthyroidism with tachycardia, with increased thyroid function.
In folk medicine, hawthorn blood-red is used for heart disease, dizziness, dyspnea, insomnia, and also as an antihypertensive, cardiotonic, cardiac pacemaker with hypertension, atherosclerosis, especially in menopause.
Dried fruits and hawthorn flowers are also recommended to brew instead of tea( mixed with leaves and fruits of strawberry, black currant, dog rose).Sometimes used as a powder, and even in the form of a jelly.
Preparations: tincture of flowers, infusion and liquid extract of fruits, the extract is a part of cardiovalen. Krategid 0.1 in tablets.
Application
Use in the form of infusion of flowers from the rate of 3 tbsp.spoons for 3 cups of boiling water and take a glass 3 times a day for heart disease, dizziness, choking, at the beginning of the climacteric period.
Recommended juice from fresh flowers( mixed with a double amount of 90 ° alcohol, infused for 15 days) 40 drops per 1 tbsp.a spoonful of water 3 times a day.
Healing is also considered tea, brewed from the fruits of hawthorn. In everyday life, in addition to tea, flour is prepared from fruits, sweet cakes from it are very tasty. Delicious and jam and fruit jelly.
Tincture of flowers: take one part of fresh juice of flowers in two parts of 90 ° alcohol and insist for 15 days. Use 30 drops 3 times a day.
Tincture from hawthorn fruit: 25 g per 100 ml of alcohol or vodka. Alcohol tincture is taken for 30-40 drops, and vodka - 50-60 drops three times a day before meals with cardioneurosis and hypertension.
Mixture: hawthorn fruit - 4 parts, motherwort - 4 parts, marsh swine - 4 parts, camomile chamomile - 1 part.1 tbsp. Spoon the mixture into a glass of boiling water. To consume 1 tbsp.spoon 3 times a day.
Note. For medicinal purposes also used hawthorn prickly and other species. Hawthorn spiny differs in that its branches are gray, fruits - with 2-3 bones.
Although the literature indicates the harmlessness of berries of hawthorn, there are a lot of them should not be, because they cause easy poisoning. Especially harmful are the green berries.
Hawthorn in hypertension
Hawthorn fruit ripens in September, taking a bright red or orange color.
Try not to tear off the leaves, collect the flowers with whole shields, when some of the flowers are still in the buds. Dry in the shade, laying out a very thin layer.
Properly dried flowers should retain a yellowish-white color and a slight pleasant aroma. They contain flavonoids, essential oils, vitamins, saponins, tannins. Fruits gather in full maturity and dry in the sun or in a dryer at a temperature of 40-60 ° C.They contain the same substances as flowers, as well as sugar and organic acids.
To apply flowers and fruits of hawthorn it follows with heart weakness, insomnia, initial forms of hypertensive disease. They improve your general condition and will be of special benefit in the elderly. We recommend several recipes:
Drink with lemon
At 2 tbsp.spoons of dried flowers of hawthorn take 5 tbsp.spoons of sugar, 5 glasses of water and lemon. The flowers are poured with boiling water and insist for 20-25 minutes. Filter hot, cool and add slices of lemon.
Tea
The fruit has a lot of sugar, starch, organic acids, pectin substances, so they have a pleasant taste, especially after frost. They are eaten fresh and dried, candied, used to make compotes, jelly, jelly, marmalade, caramel filling, etc. Grinded fruits are added to the flour to make a sweet dough. Seeds contain over 30% fatty oil.
Hawthorn spiny contains in the fruits of acid: ursolic, oleanic, chlorogenic, coffee, lemon, wine-stone and ascorbic;carotene, hyperoside( gisterin), tannins, sorbitol, choline, fatty oil and sugars. Seeds found fatty oil, amygdalin and hyperoside. In flowers - coffee and chlorogenic acids, hyperoside, quercetin, rheinoside vitexin, vitek-sin and essential oil. In the cortex, glycoside is esculin( krategin).
Fruits have a faint smell, bitterish-acidic, slightly astringent taste. Dried flowers and leaves do not have a smell, their taste is bitter. The hawthorn does not possess a cumulative property.
The pontic hawthorn, wildly growing in the Pamir-Alai and East Transcaucasia, is also used as a food plant. Its fruits, reaching 3 cm in diameter, are sold in markets throughout Central Asia. For the sake of them, the plant has long been bred both within the natural range, and much further north. In the Caucasus and in the Crimea, the eastern hawthorn is distributed with almost as large edible fruits as the hawthorn pontic. As a medicinal raw material harvests fruits and flowers of many other species: hawthorn prickly, wildly growing only in Transcarpathia, but in a culture widespread throughout the USSR;hawthorn of the one-petrel and hawthorn of the five-petalled, common in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and the Caucasus;hawthorn Daurian and hawthorn Maximovich, growing in Eastern Siberia and the Far East, etc.
1 tablespoon of a mixture of dried flowers and hawthorn leaves pour 1 cup boiling water, insist 5 minutes, filter and drink with sugar.
Juice
0.5 kg of ripe hawthorn fruit is washed, crushed with a wooden stick, add 0.5 cups of water, heat to 40 ° C and squeeze in a juicer. The resulting juice is drunk one tablespoon 3 times a day before meals. Has a beneficial effect on the heart.
Jam
Fruits of hawthorn are washed and dried put in enamel ware, pour in pre-cooked syrup( 1 kg of fruit take 1 kg of sugar and 0.3 liters of water).Withstand the fruit in syrup for 10 hours, cook in one step until cooked. At the beginning of cooking, add 1.5 g of citric acid and a little vanillin.
Tincture
10 g of flowers with leaves infuse for 10 days in 100 ml of vodka or 70-degree alcohol, filter, keep in a dark bottle.
Take 20-30 drops with water 3 times a day for 30 minutes before meals. The course lasts 20-30 days.
It is used in functional disorders of cardiac activity, with cardiac weakness, anginoneuroses, insomnia in cardiac patients, hyperthyroidism with tachycardia, initial forms of hypertension, atherosclerosis. Reduces the excitability of the central nervous system, tones the heart muscle, strengthens coronary cerebral circulation, eliminates arrhythmia and tachycardia, reduces blood pressure, dyspnea.
Hypersensitivity to the drug components( urticaria, pruritus;
pregnancy;
lactation period;
post-stroke state;
age under 18;
atherosclerosis;
tachycardia;
vegetative dystonia;
arterial hypertension;
atrial fibrillation
actions:
In some cases, hypersensitivity reactions to the drug are possible. When using the drug in high doses, drowsiness, general weakness is possible. This applies to the drivers of transport
Arterial hypotension, arrhythmia, rarely dizziness( occur with a decrease in the dose of the drug or after its withdrawal)
Do not take drugs on the basis of this plant with a generalretardation of reactions, slowness or autism. As such conditions only worsen after the adoption of hawthorn. It is not recommended to take drugs based on hawthorn in asthenoneurotic syndrome, with climacteric syndrome, toxicosis.