Hawthorn Uses, Benefits & Recipes

Hawthorn is a tall bush of Rosaceae family, the healing properties of fruits and leaves are actively used in folk medicine. There are several varieties of hawthorn, each of which is indispensable in the treatment of diseases and the recovery period after them.

What benefit can be derived from this plant? What contraindications is it characterized? What are the recipes to follow in order to reveal exclusively the positive properties of hawthorn?

Scientific name: Crataegus
Family: Rosaceae
Kingdom: Plantae
Higher classification: Malinae
Rank: Genus

Useful properties of hawthorn

With its medicinal properties, hawthorn is fully obliged to the chemical composition donated by nature:

• 4-11% of sugars, in particular fructose, which allows using it in the diet and therapy of diabetes mellitus;


• organic acids - oleanoic, ursolic and cryptic acids, tartaric and citric acids;


• biologically active substances - choline and acetylcholine, quercetin, tannins, phytosterols;


• pectin - necessary for excretion of toxins, salts of heavy metals and other harmful substances from the body;


• vitamins - in particular A, C, P
  
  
  
  
  • C is 31-108 mg in 100 ml,
  
  
  • P - 330-680 mg in 100 ml,
  
  
  • A - 2-4 mg in 100 ml.
  
  
  
  

The fruits of hawthorn are a source of substances that affect the heart rhythm. The extract of this plant is low-toxic, but with sufficient stimulating effect on the heart.

[caption id="attachment_706" align="alignleft" width="353"] hawthorn[/caption]

Most of all, the properties of hawthorn are valued in the therapy of cardiovascular diseases. In ancient times, when pharmaceuticals were not as developed as they are today, hawthorn was the first treatment for heart muscle and blood flow diseases. For example, a decoction of its leaves improves coronary circulation, increases the contraction of the heart muscle.

With special attention to the use of hawthorn, elderly people need to be treated, only not within the framework of self-medication. Persons who, with age or due to individual characteristics of the body, have cardiac disturbances, can discuss preparations based on hawthorn with their doctor in charge.

Hawthorn is also useful for young people - after all, many of them have a heart that is exposed to stress due to illnesses and stresses.

Preparations based on hawthorn contribute to the normalization of pressure due to the fact that the intensity of heartbeats will increase. This is also useful in the recovery period after heart attacks and other heart diseases.

Properties of hawthorn are not limited to benefits for the heart. This plant has pronounced astringent properties, which can be skillfully used in the treatment of diseases of the bile duct and liver.

The healing properties of hawthorn, in particular, its berries, have a positive effect on the excretory system of man.

Regular, but moderate consumption of hawthorn can normalize the functions of the thyroid gland and overcome the phenomenon of dyspnoea.

Hawthorn in addition to everything else and an excellent antiseptic - it disinfects well and destroys the pathogenic microflora. This allows the use of funds based on it, for example, for the treatment of diseases of the skin and mucous membranes.

In the opinion of some folk healers, the properties of hawthorn are also antitumoral, but it is not necessary to follow this statement unselfishly.

Self-use of hawthorn is recommended at best for disease prevention. In medical purposes, the prospect of using it is better discussed with the attending physician. Probably, hawthorn will be an excellent addition to the main course of therapy.

Contraindications to the use of hawthorn

The first category of persons who should be cautious about the properties of hawthorn are pregnant and breastfeeding women. Being a source of a large number of biologically active components, hawthorn can at least provoke an allergic reaction. At the same time, in small concentrations, as well as in the composition of herbal preparations, hawthorn for pregnant women is useful - it perfectly relieves stress, fatigue, promotes a good sleep. Anyway, but the prospect of using hawthorn with this category of individuals , like any other medicines and folk recipes, should be an occasion for medical advice.

The second category of persons, which hawthorn is undesirable, is hypotonic. Although it was said that this plant normalizes the pressure, but it is more about lowering it than increasing it. In hypotonic patients, the portion of hawthorn, on the contrary, can lead to deterioration of well-being. At the same time, low blood pressure is often found in vegeto-vascular dystonia, and it is considered an indication for the use of hawthorn. As a result, it would be correct to again go to a consultation with a cardiologist. The doctor will understand the essence of the disease in a particular case, establish its etiology and determine whether it helps or hurts the hawthorn in therapy.

Decoction and infusion of hawthorn cannot be drunk on an empty stomach. Otherwise, there may be an intestinal spasm, vomiting, or vasospasm.

Another extreme in the use of hawthorn is uncontrolled, and therefore often excessive use. Hawthorn, like many other herbs, it is better to take repeated courses with interruptions.

If, on the background of hawthorn treatment, you feel a deterioration of well-being, discontinue such therapy and seek the advice of a specialized specialist.

Recipes for hawthorn

Fruits, leaves and flowers of hawthorn can be purchased at the nearest pharmacy kiosk, or you can prepare yourself. If you are a follower of the second approach in the preparation of a medicine, and prefer not just to brew raw materials, but also to prepare it directly, here are some tips:

• grows hawthorn in thin dry more often deciduous forests, on the fringes, near rivers; sometimes a few shrubs at a time can be found in the open field;


• for harvesting flowers you need to choose dry sunny weather - in late spring or early summer;


• collected and transferred flowers must be dried naturally (without using electric dryers and ovens), but not in the open sun, but in the shade;


• the fruits of hawthorn ripen in the autumn, then they are harvested - when the foliage falls and the fruits are clearly visible on the branches;


• fruits are scattered on a tin tray by a thin layer and put in a warm, but non-frying oven; from time to time the fruits are stirred, removing burnt, and the dried are poured into tissue or paper bags;


• properly harvested raw materials can be stored for up to eight years, it will not lose medicinal properties.

From dried hawthorn, as well as from freshly picked berries, several preparations are being prepared for therapeutic use - alcohol tinctures, infusions and decoctions.

To prepare an alcoholic tincture of hawthorn, it is necessary:

• 25 grams of fruit insist in 100 ml of medical alcohol (you can use a simple vodka, but the tincture will turn out to be less strong) for one week in a dark place


• 1 part of the flowers pour 2 parts of alcohol, insist two weeks; take the tincture in diluted with an equal amount of water;

The properties of hawthorn, in this case, will positively affect the central nervous system and the cardiovascular system. With its regular use, the manifestations of vegetative-vascular disorders will decrease, blood pressure will be normalized, irritability, anxiety will pass, a person will better fall asleep.

Ready tincture of hawthorn can be bought at the pharmacy.

With the use of boiling water, and not alcohol, you can prepare an infusion or a decoction of hawthorn :

• 3 tbsp. spoons of dried berries pour 3 glasses of steep boiling water, insist for half an hour, filter and take 1 glass 3 times a day;


• 20 grams of dried berries pour a glass of boiling water and boil over low heat for up to 15 minutes; then filter, squeeze and bring the volume to the original boiled water; take 1 tbsp. spoon 3 times a day.

Infusion and broth of hawthorn is not prepared for future use. Prepared home medicine should be consumed during the first day, then prepare a new, fresh. Properties of hawthorn in the stale infusion or decoction are gradually lost. To remove from the berries the maximum of their properties before brewing them are crushed, and the resulting drink is initially prepared or then poured into a thermos, where it is best kept, but not more than one day.

It is interesting that hawthorn can be used not only in folk medicine, but also in cooking. It is an excellent aromatic and still useful raw material for compotes, morses, jams and jams, sauces and jellies, pie fillings, gravy for desserts.

Apricot useful Properties, Benefits, Treatment

Apricot is a plant of the Rosaceae family.

Latin name: Armeniaca vulgaris Mill.

Dried apricots for winter, depending on the method of harvesting are divided into 4 types:

Uryuk - whole fruit with a stone;

Dried apricots - fruits, divided into halves;

Kaisa - whole fruits without pits;

Sheptala - a kind of dried apricots, obtained from the fruits of special Central Asian varieties, characterized by a large size and high sugar content.

Description of Apricot

[caption id="attachment_623" align="alignleft" width="250"] Apricot[/caption]

Deciduous tree, less often a bush of the Rosaceae family up to 8 m in height. Apricot has a powerful root system with a rod root, which is located at different levels, depending on soil conditions. With the natural formation of the crown in a young apricot, the shoots grow long and often at an acute angle from the trunk. Such a crown can be unstable. Therefore, when growing apricot, the tree crown is usually formed from the first year of life, and make it annually. The main goals of the formation of the crown are the strength of the skeleton and the compactness.

Bark grayish-brown, longitudinally cracked. Young shoots are red-brown, glabrous, shiny, with small lenticels. Leaves petiolate, alternate, ovate-rounded, almost cordate at the base, irregularly toothed along the edge.

Flowers are bisexual, white or pink, almost sessile, 5-petalled, solitary. Petals are elliptical or back-ovoid. The diameter of the flowers is 25-30 mm. Flowers blossom before the appearance of leaves. Blooms in April. Fruit ripening begins in late June - early July. Fruiting of late varieties until early August.

Fruit is a round, juicy drupe with velvety-pubescent skin. The color of the skin of the fruit varies: whitish-greenish, pale yellow, yellow, orange, often with a reddish side. Sometimes peel and purple. The pulp is soft, juicy, sweet or sweet-sour. The weight of fruits from 5 to 80 and more grams. Seeds are back-ovate, with a dense light-brown skin.

The birthplace of the apricot is North-East China. In the wild, apricots are distributed in the Far East, the North Caucasus, Tien Shan, Turkmenistan, and Northwest China. In the post-Soviet space, it is grown everywhere. In the southern regions of Russia and Ukraine, apricot is grown as an industrial crop.

Some of the most delicious apricot varieties - Bebeko, Tsarsky, Favorit, Lel, Pineapple. Apricot prefers sandy loamy and light loamy, deeply drained, moderately moist soils with a slightly alkaline reaction. The level of groundwater should not be closer than 2 m. Propagation of apricot is mainly by localization, less often by cuttings or seeds.

Ingredients and caloric content of apricots - per 100 g of fruit

Calories - 41 calories;

Proteins - 0,9 g;

Fats - 0.1 g;

Carbohydrates - 10.8 g

Fresh fruits of the apricot contain about 23-27% sugar per 100 g (mainly sucrose), organic acids about 2.5% (citric, apple, tartar, salicylic), pectins about 1%, vitamin C 10-27%, a lot beta-carotene and vitamin PP, fiber, vitamins B1, B2, H, B6, flavonoids, many salts of potassium, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, boron, iron, also iodine, silver. The same substances are contained in dried apricots.

Apricot seeds contain fatty oil (30-50%), protein substances, emulsin, arabinose, galactose, glucuronic acid, minerals, amygdalin (vitamin B17).

Features of Apricot

Apricot is an ordinary thermophilic fruit tree. Height - 3-6 m, trunk diameter up to 30 cm. Leaves are cordate, length - 4-9 cm. Flowers large, pink, sometimes white. The fruit is large, round or slightly flattened from the sides, with one large bone, juicy, sweet. The color of the fruit is from pale yellow to reddish orange. Apricot blossoms in March-April before leaves blossom. Fruits ripen in June-July.

Collection and procurement of raw materials of Apricot

For eating, processing, drying, apricot berries are fully ripened. The collection is carried out in 2-3 stages, as it ripens. If you plan to transport berries, in this case they are ripped off 2-3 days earlier. In the fridge, at 0 ° C, apricot fruits can be stored for several weeks. Berries can also be dried, frozen, made of dried apricots, jam, jams, juice, compotes, etc.

You can dry the apricots simply in the sun. For this, the bones are removed from the berries, the flesh is laid on the cloth in one layer in the sun. For the night, berries are brought into a dry room. In dry, hot weather, the drying process takes 3-5 days. Dried apricots are often used to make compotes. You can dry apricot with a stone. This apricot is a dried apricot.

Habitat of Apricot

The birthplace of the apricot is Tien-Shan. It is now common in many subtropical and some temperate countries. The plant can be found in southern Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Central Asia, southern Europe, etc. There is also a wild variety of apricot - zherdela or zarzar.

Dried apricots

In recent decades, dried apricots have appeared, which is also a dried apricot, but according to a special technology. The essence of this technology lies in the preliminary short heat treatment of berries. The broken fruits of apricot are picked, the stems are removed, washed, dried from water on the cloth. Then the fruits are broken in half, but so that the halves remain connected, remove the bones.

Sometimes it is necessary to make an incision along the groove to break the fruit in half. After removing the pits, the halves are joined together. Further, the fruits are immersed in boiling water for 4-5 minutes (no more) or kept in a colander over the steam for 10-15 minutes. This treatment is necessary in order for the flesh to retain its color.

The fruits are taken out of boiling water, they are allowed to cool slightly, they are taken one by one in hands, and the halves are squeezed together so that the flesh is connected. Then they spread out on a towel to dry out from the water. After that, the fruits are laid out on a baking sheet and dried in an oven or dryer at t 65 ° C for 8-10 hours. They store dried apricots in tissue bags.

Chemical composition of Apricot

Fresh apricots are rich in vitamins, macro- and microelements. Fruits contain a large number of vitamins C, B1, B2, B15, P, provitamin A, giving the apricots their bright color. Among macro- and microelements, iron, manganese, copper, cobalt, and silver are the most abundant. Many in apricots of various acids, especially lemon and wine, are also apple and salicylic. In addition, inulin is found in fruits, flavonoids (quercetin, isokvetsitrin, lycopene, etc.), tannins, starch, pectin.

In fruits of apricots high content of sugars (more than 20%), which are mainly sucrose. In dried fruits, sugar is even more - 80-85%.

In the seeds of apricots contains vitamin B15, more than 20 proteins, more than 10% carbohydrates and up to 76% fatty oil.

Collection and Procurement of Apricot

For medicinal purposes, fruits of apricots, kernels (the contents of apricot kernels), gum (thick glue protruding on the surface of the trunk and hardening in the air), leaves, flowers, bark are used. Leaves harvested in early summer, bark in the spring.

Apricot kernels are the raw material for the production of apricot oil.

Therapeutic and useful properties of apricots

Fresh and dried apricots are a good tool for the prevention and treatment of various cardiovascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, arrhythmia, myocardial infarction. They are also used for circulatory disorders. Fruits contribute to increased brain activity and improve memory, which is especially useful for students, students and people of mental work.

As a diuretic, apricots help to remove excess fluid from the body, are also useful for kidney diseases.

Due to its rich composition, the fruits of apricots are used to stimulate the process of hematopoiesis and increase the level of hemoglobin, with anemia.

Apricots are a preventive against cancer, have cleansing properties, remove salts of heavy metals, help with constipation. Despite the high content of sugars, apricots are low-calorie and can be used as a delicious way to lose weight.

• Fresh apricots - an excellent remedy for beriberi, they also increase immunity. Particularly useful are the fruits of pregnant women, children, the elderly. It is believed that regular use of apricots prolongs life.


• The kernels of apricots have excellent taste properties and can serve as a substitute for more expensive almonds. In addition, they are used to treat cardiovascular diseases, as well as a cough, bronchitis, bronchial asthma, tracheitis, catarrh of the respiratory tract, laryngitis. A high anti-cancer effect of apricot kernels is established.


• Are not deprived of medicinal properties and leaves of apricots. They are used to get rid of worms, with diarrhea, as a diuretic. Fresh well-rumpled leaves are used as a compress with bruises. They are chewed for cleaning teeth from plaque and for the treatment of stomatitis.


• Flowers of apricots also have medicinal properties. They are used as an external and internal means for stopping the bleeding.


• Apricot is used as an enveloping and binding agent.


• The use of apricot is due to the large content of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients in them. The intake of 150-200 ml per day of apricot juice provides the body with the necessary vitamins and minerals.


• Fresh fruits of apricot are useful for the prevention and treatment of anemia, with skin diseases, oral mucosa, cardiovascular diseases, which are accompanied by swelling, also with obesity, constipation, gastrointestinal diseases accompanied by reduced acidity of gastric juice and putrefactive processes, to recover after mental loads.


• During pregnancy and lactation, apricots, dried apricots, apricot juice will also be useful, as they prevent the anemia, swelling, constipation, and nourish the body with the necessary vitamins and minerals.


• Juice of fresh ripe apricots is used for sunburn; flesh - in cosmetology for the preparation of nourishing masks for the skin of the face.

Benefit of dried apricots

• Dried apricots are dried apricot fruit, so the useful properties of dried apricots and indications for use are the same as for fresh fruits. But the concentration of vitamins and minerals in it (per 100 grams of product) is much larger than in fresh fruits. A lot in dried apricots potassium and magnesium.


• Potassium provides the conduct of nerve impulses, regulates the alkaline balance of blood, as well as tissue fluid, participates in the metabolism, promotes the excretion of the body's fluid, regulates the rhythm of the heart. Potassium is very important for violations of heart rhythm and cardiovascular insufficiency. Daily need for an adult 3-5 g.


• Magnesiumantistress, antitoxic, anti-inflammatory, antiallergic, antitumor effect, normalizes parathyroid gland function, participates in the transmission of nerve impulse, stimulates phagocytosis, participates in the synthesis of antibodies, is the building material of the skeleton and especially lung tissue, participates in the regulation of blood clotting, activates the work of biotin vitamin H).


• The daily requirement of magnesium for an adult is 300-400 mg; pregnant and lactating women - 450 mg per day. Magnesium is also important for patients with hypertension, as it helps reduce blood pressure and for women during menopause.


• Especially, dried apricots for cardiovascular diseases, accompanied by edemas; atherosclerosis, coronary insufficiency. In such cases it is useful to do unloading days - once a week during the day to eat 300 grams of wet dried apricots for 4 meals and drink 400-500 ml of apricot juice.


• Since in dried apricots contains a lot of fiber, then some people, when consuming it in large quantities, there may be an upset of the gastrointestinal tract. The average daily dose of dried apricots for an adult is 80-100 grams.

Use of seeds of apricot

• Seeds of apricot are conditionally edible. They can be consumed in a limited number: adults - no more than 20 grams per 1 reception; not more than 40 grams per day; children - the dose is 2 times less. This is due to the content in the seeds of amygdalin, which in the body turns into hydrocyanic acid.


• Cyanic acid for the body is a powerful poison that can lead to death. But at the same time, amygdalin has beneficial properties for the body. It improves the metabolism, slows down the aging process, has a beneficial effect on hypertension, arthritis, has an analgesic effect, is capable of destroying cancer cells. For example, in north-western India, where apricot seeds are eaten, there are almost no cancers.


• In Chinese folk medicine, apricot kernels are used as a sedative for cough and hiccough.

Recipes with apricots

Apricots for improving the work of the heart

50 g of dried apricots pitted pour 200 ml hot water and let stand for 3-4 hr. Take ½ art. present once a day.

Apricot grindcore. 1 tsp Pour 200 ml of boiled water and mix well. Blend a drink for the day, dividing it into 2-3 parts.

Apricots are contraindicated when:

• diabetes;


• acute gastritis with high acidity;


• gastric and duodenal oh gut;


• Some liver diseases;


• pancreatitis.

Apricot is contraindicated in diabetes mellitus, as it contains a lot of sugar. A little can be used for gastritis and gastric ulcer and 12 duodenal ulcer with high acidity; it is impossible with exacerbation of these diseases. Individual intolerance is possible.

Also, do not:

• there are fresh apricots on an empty stomach;


• there apricots after trudnoperevariva emoy food (kebabs, rice and others.);


• immediately after apricots drink cold water;


• there are more than 20 grams of nucleoli apricots at a time - perhaps prussic acid poisoning.