Hawthorn, also known as mountain fruit, mountain red, hawthorn genus of Rosaceae, deciduous tree, up to 6 meters high. It is distributed in Shandong, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Hebei and other places.
Hawthorn belongs to drupe fruits, with hard core, thin flesh and slightly sour taste. The fruit can be eaten raw or made as preserved fruit cake, it can be used as medicine after drying, it is a unique medicinal fruit and fruit tree species in China, which has the effects of lowering blood lipids, blood pressure, strengthening the heart, anti-arrhythmia, etc., and is also a good medicine for strengthening the spleen and appetizing, eliminating food and stagnation, invigorating blood and dissolving phlegm, and has a good effect on the chest and spleen, hernia, blood stasis, amenorrhea and other diseases. Vitexin, a flavonoid in hawthorn, is a drug with strong anti-cancer effect, and its extract has a certain effect on inhibiting the growth, proliferation and invasion and metastasis of cancer cells in the body.
1. Aids digestion. Hawthorn contains a variety of organic acids. After oral administration, it enhances the acidity of gastric juice, improves pepsin activity and promotes the digestion of protein; hawthorn tastes acid, stimulates gastric mucosa and promotes gastric juice secretion; hawthorn contains lipase, which can promote the digestion of fat; hawthorn contains vitamin C and other components, which can increase appetite when taken orally; hawthorn has a regulating effect on gastrointestinal motor function, has an inhibitory effect on the gastrointestinal smooth muscle in a spasmodic state, and has an excitatory effect on the smooth muscle in a relaxed state.
2. Lowering blood lipids. Hawthorn flavonoids can significantly reduce the concentrations of serum total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and apolipoprotein B in experimental hyperlipidemia animals, and significantly increase the concentrations of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and apolipoprotein A, but have little effect on triglycerides. Hawthorn's hypolipidemic effect is to inhibit the synthesis of liver cholesterol and promote the liver's uptake of plasma cholesterol and exert a hypolipidemic effect. Hawthorn flavonoids can also reduce the risk of atherosclerosis (AS) and play a role in preventing the occurrence and development of AS.
3. Vasodilation and lowering
pressure, anti-atherosclerosis. Hawthorn can significantly reduce serum cholesterol and triglycerides, effectively prevent and treat atherosclerosis, and hawthorn can also strengthen the heart and prevent angina pectoris by enhancing myocardial contractility, increasing cardiac output, dilating coronary blood vessels, increasing coronary blood flow, and reducing myocardial oxygen consumption. In addition, the total flavonoids in hawthorn have a vasodilating and long-lasting antihypertensive effect.
4. Antibacterial. Hawthorn has a strong antibacterial effect on Shigella, Proteus, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, etc.
The effect of hawthorn digestion and stomach strengthening is mainly related to the pharmacological effects of aiding digestion and antibacterial, which provides a pharmacological basis for the treatment of meat stagnation, gastric fullness, diarrhea and abdominal pain, etc., and the effect of qi dispersion and stasis is also mainly related to the pharmacological effects of lowering blood lipids, anti-atherosclerosis, and anti-myocardial ischemia. The active ingredients of hawthorn, organic acids and flavonoids, are important material bases for its pharmacological effects. But there are some
Contraindications for consumption.
1. Pregnant women, children, people with excessive gastric acid secretion, people with physical weakness after illness and people with dental disease should not eat.
2. Hawthorn is only used to replenish, and people with weak spleen and stomach should not eat more.
3. Healthy people should also eat hawthorn in moderation, children in the development of teeth, long-term eating of hawthorn, is not good for dental health, after eating mothers should take children to rinse their mouths and brush their teeth in time, in case of damage to the teeth.
4. Hawthorn slices and fruit dan peel contain a lot of sugar, and diabetics should not eat them.
5. Pregnant women don't like to eat hawthorn. When you are just pregnant, pregnant women will inevitably have vomiting and other reactions, like to eat sour things, and do not choose hawthorn, because it has the effect of breaking blood and dispersing stasis, can stimulate uterine contractions, and is very easy to cause miscarriage. Eating it after giving birth helps to repair the uterus.
【Knowledge Tips】
The combination of hawthorn should be avoided
山楂 + 杜仲，降血压。
Hawthorn + wolfberry, nourishing the liver and kidneys.
Hawthorn + shrimp, irritating the stomach and intestines, causing discomfort taboo.
Hawthorn + sea cucumber, not easily digestible.
Hawthorn + lemon, affects digestion.
Hawthorn + pork liver, which affects the absorption of nutrients.
Hawthorn + shrimp, irritating the stomach and intestines, causing discomfort.