Hawthorns Health Benefits

Hawthorn is the fruit, or the flowers and leaves combined, of several of the more than 100 species of Crataegus.

Traditional Use

Hawthorn is widely used for hypertension related to cardiac weakness, arteriosclerosis, and angina pectoris. Hawthorn has been used as an digestive aid in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries. Today, hawthorn is used primarily to treat heart failure.

Hawthorn is notably absent from medical works and herbals of early-nineteenth-century America and Europe. It came to the attention of the medical profession in the 1890s by means of a single reference in a medical journal. By the early twentieth century, it was a mainstay of heart disease treatment. Still widely used in Europe and Asia, it is less frequently recommended in America.

Medial Uses:

• Angina
• Atherosclerosis
• Congestive heart failure
• Hypertension
• Indigestion