Hawthorn flower: medicinal properties, contraindications, application

The hawthorn flower is a universal remedy for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. They contain the largest amount of vitamins, but it must be taken into account that sometimes the correctness of collection and storage plays the most important role.

Collecting flowers, you run the risk of bringing a flowerhead to the house, which for several months will completely destroy your workpiece.

To avoid this, the flowers and leaves of the hawthorn must be harvested in a strictly designated period, and some of them should be used in the form of a tincture that will allow using the useful properties of hawthorn all winter.

Description

Hawthorn has long been one of the most famous plants in the people due to its useful properties. Most often it can be found under the name of a boyar or lady-tree. In fact, this plant is a small tall shrub or tree, whose height sometimes reaches 5 m. It is noteworthy that all the branches of hawthorn are covered with small thorns. Since hawthorn belongs to the Rosaceae family, the flowers can be either white or pale pink. The main period of their appearance begins at the end of May and lasts until July. Since the plant is a honey plant, the flowers of hawthorn, useful properties of which are appreciated all over the world, spread around themselves at a distance of several meters a rather unpleasant smell, designed to attract insects, whose duty is to pollute them.

Despite the fact that the fruits of this plant are rather small, round or oblong, their full maturation occurs only at the end of August. The color of berries, depending on the variety of hawthorn, can vary from red or black to a saturated orange color. The flesh of the fruit is fleshy, slightly astringent, while it is sweet enough to taste.

Places of growth

Most of the people's interest is attracted not to the berries, but to the flowers of the hawthorn, the medicinal properties of which allow the plant to withstand competition, even with such a leader in the content of vitamins, like rose hips. You can find hawthorn, in particular, in the rare deciduous dry forests, in close proximity to river floodplains or on the fringes.

In rare cases, you can find several bushes in the fields away from the forest. This is explained simply, birds eating like bugs, feeding on hawthorn seeds, and the seeds themselves, making flights, defecate. The seed falls into the soil with a share of natural fertilizer, so it quickly takes root and begins to grow rapidly.

To date, there are a large number of different types of hawthorn in the world , only in the territories of the post-Soviet space there are more than 40 species, among which the most famous is the blood-red hawthorn, which is most often used for treatment.

Vitamin content

Since the most beneficial are the flowers of hawthorn, the medicinal properties and contraindications must be carefully studied before proceeding to direct collection. Of course, you can use not only flowers, but also fruits, leaves and bark to prepare medicines, but you should take into account that the vitamin content in flowers is much higher than in other parts of the plant.

First of all, decide for what purposes you are going to harvest hawthorn. And then, based on the content of useful elements, choose which part of the plant will bring your body more benefits. The hawthorn flower contains a large number of essential oils, various acids, micro- and macro elements. Of course, in any case, do not forget to consult a doctor, because self-medication can do more harm than good.

Stocking flowers

It is noteworthy that the flowers of hawthorn, whose medicinal properties are of special value, can simply not be collected, because the flowering time often does not exceed 3-4 days, especially if the weather is hot during this period. And flowers must be harvested at the beginning of flowering, when they have not yet blossomed. First of all, this is due to the fact that as soon as they dissolve, they will settle in a lot of flowers, capable in a short period of completely destroy the hawthorn flower that you managed to collect and dry. Since often hawthorn bushes are sufficiently voluminous, it is superfluous to speed up the collection process, cutting not only individual flowers, but entire inflorescences. When cutting, you must try to ensure that the length of the legs they have as little as possible.

Categorically it is not recommended to collect them in the early morning, when the dew has not dried out, and immediately after the rain. The fact is that such a hawthorn flower loses most of its useful properties. In addition, with further drying, the flowers will acquire a darker shade. In this case, the drying itself should occur no later than 2 hours after collection in a warm, well ventilated room, where the flowers will not be exposed to direct sunlight. To speed up the process, it is best to try to distribute them as thin as possible.

The flowers of hawthorn can preserve useful properties both in spirit tincture, which must be prepared from fresh cut flowers, and in the form of various tinctures on the basis of ready dry collections.

When cutting, you must try to ensure that the length of the legs of the inflorescences was as small as possible.

Fruit harvesting

Fruits must be harvested only after they have reached full maturation. This period falls at the end of September, until the first frosts occurred. You can both break off individual scutes with fruits, and separate each one in turn.

If a dryer is used to speed up the drying process, the maximum temperature in it should not exceed 60 ° C. The natural drying process lasts at least a week, after which the ready raw material will necessarily have to be sorted out in order to remove all the accompanying fruits of the impurity: stems and poor-quality berries.

Application in official medicine

If we consider hawthorn flowers, application will not cause difficulties even for those who first encountered this plant. They are successfully used when the stability of the heart or high blood pressure.

Any drug, created on the basis of hawthorn, has a detailed instruction describing all the details of the use, however in any case it is necessary to consult the doctor beforehand so as not to cause self-harm to the body.

What is hawthorn used for?

If necessary, with the help of hawthorn, it is possible to exert a selective influence on the coronary vessels of the brain, calming effect on the nervous system, accelerate oxygen supply to such important parts of the body as the heart and brain, and to ensure the constant maintenance of the body in tone.

In the field of traditional medicine, the most widespread was a tincture of hawthorn flowers and a liquid extract of fruits. They are able to quickly assist the body in the occurrence of dizziness, dyspnea, insomnia, as well as properly stimulate the metabolism in the body.

Infusion of hawthorn

Infusion made of hawthorn is one of the simplest in the manufacture of medicines, the only drawback of which is considered a short shelf life. Of course, if the infusion is made of alcohol, the shelf life is significantly increased, while it is important that it is not only available at the pharmacy, but also made independently. This is, perhaps, the simplest means that can be prepared from medicinal plants.

But even in the refrigerator it is stored for no more than a day. Therefore, every day you need to brew a new infusion. So it is recommended to make alcoholic tinctures, which, of course, are stored longer.

Hawthorn flowers: contraindications

Hawthorn is probably one of the few plants that do not cause side effects even with prolonged use, but not all people and not in any quantities can apply it. Despite the fact that some preparations containing hawthorn are prescribed for people with serious diseases, there are a number of contraindications, for example, if the dosage is significantly exceeded (more than 100 drops of hawthorn), the pulse slows down significantly.

Flowers hawthorn medicinal properties retained for a sufficiently long period of time (about two years). Therefore, do not worry that you use a poor-quality product, for example, by buying them in a pharmacy, but you should not drink tea with hawthorn if you have been found to have a serious heart disease or kidney disease.

The flowers of hawthorn, the use of which has been examined by us, with extreme caution should be used by pregnant and lactating women, because the calming nervous system influences the baby and can later serve as a cause of serious violations.