Official name: Common hawthorn

Latin name: Crataegus Laevigatus L.  

German name: Weissdorn

Description: Common hawthorn is a thorny shrub of the Rosaceae family with a smooth gray bark and a height of up to 3-4 m. It is found throughout Bulgaria in different places with altitudes from 0 to 1500 m. Its stem is covered with prickly spikes. The leaves are consecutive, most often with 3 to 7 deep cuts, unevenly jagged, most rounded and shiny on top. Young twigs are naked or with rare hairs. The flowers are small, white, rarely reddish, slightly aromatic and form thyroid inflorescences located on the tops. The fruit is fleshy, ball, red or orange yellow, with one or two oval stones. It blooms in the spring, and the fruits ripen in August - October.

Part of the herb used: blossom(Flores Crataegi), hawthorn leaf(Folium Crataegi), hawthorn fruit (Fructus Crataegi)

Time of collection: The flowers (Flores Crataegi) of the common hawthorn are harvested during their initial flowering in May and June, when only single flowers have blossomed in the inflorescence. The leaves (Folium Crataegi) are harvested green and well developed after the flowering of the medicinal plant in the summer. The fruit (Fructus Crataeggi) is harvested by hand with the fruit stems when well ripe, red, hard in September and October. All parts of ordinary hawthorn are dried in the shade in dry ventilated rooms.

Content and properties: The leaves, flowers and fruits of the herb contain flavonoid substances: hyperoside, quercetin, vitexin and vitexinramnoside, which have a proven antiarrhythmic effect.  The fruit drug contains oligomeric proanthocyanidins, leukoanthocyanidins, etc.

Hawthorn has vasodilating, cardiotonic, sedative action and is used with success in ischemic heart disease, in the treatment of patients with myocardial damage, coronary insufficiency, hypertensive disease in the elderly, in the treatment of senile insomnia, atherosclerosis, cardiac asthma, cardiac neurosis, etc.  

Opportunities for offering on request of the client: 

"Vesselino" Ltd. offers its customers the herb in the following varieties: 

• hawthorn flower (Flores Crataegi) - dried, whole, crushed, cut to size at the customer's request, ground into powder/flour
• hawthorn leaf (Folium Crataegi) - dried, whole, crushed, cut to size at the customer's request, ground into powder/flour  
• hawthorn fruit (Fructus Crataeggi) - dried, whole, crushed, cut to size at customer's request, ground into powder/flour