Hawthorn is a genus of deciduous tall shrubs or small trees. Since ancient times, the fruits of the plant have been eaten and used as a drug for stomach disorders. Now its spectrum of action is wider.
Hawthorn berries
The hawthorn fruit is a small apple with a diameter of 0.5-4 cm. The berry can be pear-shaped, spherical or elongated. The seed in the berry is located near the calyx in the upper part of the fruit under a thin layer of skin. Hawthorn matures in the first two months of autumn.
Learn more about common hawthorn species and its benefits for the body.
The color of the skin of the fruit depends on the type of plant. May take these shades: a delicate orange-yellow, red, bright orange, extremely rarely black. The size of the berry depends on the variety. Typically, a blood red hawthorn has a fruit of 5–7 mm in diameter. Varieties with large fruits have berries in diameter of 3-4 centimeters. 
Taste is also different for different varieties. Larger fruits are sweetish, similar to apples. Small in taste are similar to rosehips. The fragrance of all virtually absent.
Did you know? Russian biologist and breeder Ivan Michurin pollinated the blood-red hawthorn and pollinated the flowers of the mountain ash and got a new plant variety, a hybrid, the mountain ash garnet. Its fruits have become sweet and sour and have lost their bitterness.
Fruit Composition
The plant is obliged to the medicinal abilities to rich vitamin and mineral structure. What gives the plant healing properties, we describe below.
Vitamins and minerals
The composition is given for the fruits of blood-red hawthorn, as the most commonly used for medicinal purposes of the species. 
Vitamins in 100 grams of berries:
- Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) - 2 mg;
- Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) - 90 mg;
- Vitamin A (Retinol) - 2,333 mg;
- beta carotene - 14 mg.
- potassium - 13.1 mg / g;
- Calcium - 3.0 mg / g;
- manganese - 1.0 mg / g;
- iron - 0.04 mg / g;
- magnesium - 0.04 µg / g;
- copper 0.29 µg / g;
- zinc - 0.07 µg / g;
- cobalt - 0.37 µg / g;
- chromium - 0.01 µg / g;
- iron - 0.03 µg / g;
- selenium - 11.8 µg / g;
- Nickel - 0.1 µg / g;
- strontium - 0.06 µg / g;
- iodine - 0.06 µg / g;
- lead - 0.05 µg / g;
- boron - 2.0 µg / g.
Other substances contained in the pulp:- tannins;
- glycosides;
- phytosterols;
- extra active compounds;
- essential oils;
- carotenoids;
- pectins;
- organic acids (citric, caffeic, oleic, tartaric).
Calorie and BJU
Nutritional value of fruits:
- proteins - 0.8 g;
- carbohydrates - 14 g;
- dietary fiber - 3.6 g;
- water - 82.4 g
Important! To use hawthorn berries as a dietary product is not recommended in large quantities, because the plant is able to lower pressure. It can be used to reduce weight only when it is caused by swelling of tissues.
What is the use
The following shrub components have a beneficial effect:
- Retinol improves visual acuity, activates skin regeneration processes.
- Beta-carotene acts as an antioxidant, activates the immune system, removes free radicals from the body.
- Vitamin C is involved in metabolic and regenerative processes and, just like beta-carotene, stands guard over immunity.
- Potassium normalizes the acid-base balance and regulates the amount of magnesium in the body. It improves the functioning of the urinary system, thereby normalizing the removal of excess fluid from the body. This minimizes the formation of edema. Also normalizes heart rate.
- Another antioxidant is molybdenum. He is responsible for male reproductive function and normalizes metabolism.
Hawthorn is among the ten most popular useful plants. This list also has Echinacea, rosehip, chamomile, horseradish, aloe, mint, sage, wormwood.
For men
For the male population, hawthorn is indispensable in the event of erectile dysfunction. Of course, the plant itself is not able to solve the problem. Only those men who have problems with erection at the initial stage can solve them with regular use of tea from the fruits of the plant. The rest is usually prescribed hawthorn as an additional element to the main list of drugs. Infusions and decoctions help calm the nervous system, thereby eliminating the psychological cause of impotence.
Besides, medicinal plant affects the work of organs, inextricably linked with the reproductive system. It normalizes the activity of the cardiovascular system, which improves blood circulation. With an increase in the intensity of blood flow, blood circulation improves in places of stagnation. In men, congestion usually occurs in the groin area. With normal blood circulation, the flow of nutrients is restored, which means that problems with erection disappear.
Older men, when taking hawthorn tinctures, support the work of the heart. There is a strengthening of blood vessels, heart muscle. Vitamins and antioxidants prevent the penetration of viruses into the body and help eliminate inflammatory processes. 
Important! During World War II, in the absence of other drugs, the fruits of blood-red hawthorn were used as a heart medicine.
For women
Hawthorn has a beneficial effect on a woman's body. It normalizes the work of the nervous system, which allows a woman to forget about unreasonable anxieties, insomnia. It copes well with hormonal changes during menopause, eliminates the unpleasant symptoms of menopause. Also normalizes the thyroid gland. During painful periods, it acts as a good painkiller.
Strengthens blood vessels, normalizes blood flow, thereby eliminating angina, tachycardia, lowers blood pressure, prevents the formation of atherosclerotic plaques.
Helps with problems with the gastrointestinal tract, kidneys, liver and gall. 
Application features
Any woman in the position is concerned about how this or that product will affect the course of her pregnancy, whether it will harm the baby. This period has its own peculiarities of hawthorn application.
Is it possible during pregnancy and lactation
For pregnant women, the use of medicinal plants is acceptable, but only in the form of decoctions and alcohol-free tinctures. They will help to normalize the heart rhythm, eliminate edema, establish digestive processes and improve the body's resistance to viruses. Naturally, medication should be recommended by a doctor.
Important! It is impossible to self-assign hawthorn to oneself, since if it is not properly taken and overdose, the probability of a miscarriage is very high.But during the breastfeeding period, medicinal drinks and berries should be discarded. When hawthorn enters the child’s body through the mother’s milk, it activates its therapeutic functions in the child’s body. But for an emerging organism, such an action is absolutely not necessary and can harm. Therefore, if you wish to use hawthorn, consult your doctor.
Is it possible to give hawthorn to children
Berries are contraindicated for small children. In their body there are not yet those changes that need to be corrected. Sometimes cardiologists and neuropathologists can prescribe infusions, but this is only for serious illnesses. It is permissible to give hawthorn to children as a prophylactic agent only if the child is already 12 years old. It is brewed in a thermos (10 berries per liter of water) and take 70 ml per day.
Possible harm and contraindication of berries
The medicinal plant does not cause any harm to the body. But there are some caveats. It is not recommended to change the dosage of beverages on their own, as with an overdose there may be a mild form of poisoning. Also, do not drink tinctures on an empty stomach. Vomiting and diarrhea may occur. Do not recommend drinking hawthorn with cold water. This can cause colic. You should be extremely careful with the plant for allergies, ulcers, people with gastritis and high blood pressure.
When and where is the best hawthorn collection
In order for the plant to benefit, it must be properly prepared. 
Weather
The berries are harvested during their ripening. This is the end of September. The collection can be carried out before the first frost. It is best to harvest in dry, calm weather in the morning, but not too early. It is necessary that the dew come down. Another important thing - time to get ahead of the birds. They love to feast on hawthorn berries.
They do not collect the fruits one by one, but cut the bunch and neatly put it in the baskets, after sorting them out and throwing out the spoiled and overripe ones.
Suitable places
It is not recommended to collect fruits from bushes growing along busy motorways and in industrial areas. It is best to find bushes of plants on forest edges or glades, formed after cutting down trees in the forest. And it is desirable that these forests grow somewhere in the countryside. 
How to dry the fruit
Berries can be dried both naturally and artificially. In the first case, the drying will be quite long, but more useful substances will remain. Enumerated and washed fruits are laid out on a cloth or paper in one layer. As such, they are left in the attic or in any other shady and dry place with good ventilation.
To prevent berries from rotting during drying, they need to be turned over periodically. Drying takes about two days. When the fruit dries out, it becomes wrinkled and light. If a few dry berries squeeze in a fist, then they should not stick to each other. During drying, they are significantly reduced in size. The dried fruit appears bitter taste and aroma. In the second method of drying involved an oven or special drying. In them, the fruits are dried at a temperature of 30-40 degrees or 40-60 degrees, depending on what quality you need raw materials.
Healing properties of hawthorn
Recall that the beneficial properties of the plant appear when properly applied. Consider how to make hawthorn drinks and why use them.
Use, use and preparation of tincture
Tincture on alcohol is prepared independently or bought in a pharmacy. Here is a simple recipe: 25 g of berries are filled with 100 g of medical alcohol or vodka in the same quantity. Leave to brew in a dark place for 10 days. Consume a quarter of an hour before meals for 30-60 drops three times a day.
This tincture helps to normalize the work of the heart, nervous system. It is recommended for insomnia, anxiety, vegetative-vascular problems, for lowering pressure. 
Did you know? Alcoholic tincture of hawthorn is used in veterinary medicine to solve cardiac problems and to normalize blood circulation in animals.
Use, application and preparation of broth
A decoction of the fruit is drunk with stenocardia, arrhythmias, extrasystoles, to normalize cholesterol levels.
The method of preparation is simple: in a glass of boiling water on a slow fire brew a tablespoon of ground berries. Boil until it boils away half the liquid. The cooled broth is drunk half a teaspoon three times a day before meals. Course duration is 3-4 months.
Use, use and preparation of infusion
Infusion of hawthorn is recommended to use to normalize heart rate, to improve blood circulation, with heart defects.
Whole fruits are poured with boiling water and left to stand overnight for 8-10 hours. To make it easier to drink the infusion, you can cook it in a thermos. For a liter of water, you will need two handfuls of berries.
Take a tablespoon three times a day before meals.
Use, application and preparation of tea
Teas are used as a sedative and sleeping pills. The recipe is similar to infusion. In a liter of water in a thermos brew 2.5 handfuls (about 30 berries) of hawthorn and leave to brew for the night. To have a calming and soporific effect, drink it before bedtime. Can be used during the day.
Cosmetic properties of hawthorn
Due to its vitamin and mineral composition, hawthorn acts perfectly on the skin, nourishing, moisturizing, cleansing it. It has a calming, regenerating effect. It activates metabolic processes in the skin.
Universal face mask:
- Hawthorn fruits are peeled and frayed into mush.
- To it add honey, sour cream or cream.
- The mixture is applied on the face for 10 minutes and then washed off.
The mask helps to restore the skin, fights acne. 
Mask for oily skin:
- A spoonful of juice from the berries of the plant is mixed with three spoons of cottage cheese with zero fat content and a spoon of yogurt.
- The ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
This composition is used once a week to clean and narrow pores.
Mask for dry skin:
- Four grapes of green variety are connected with 1 tsp. hawthorn juice.
- Apply for 20 minutes to tone and nourish the skin of the face.
How to cook berries: jam recipe
Jam is a tasty and easy way to get nutrients. Here is a classic recipe for this dish.
We advise you to learn how to properly dry hawthorn at home and what preparations can be made from hawthorn for the winter.
Required Ingredients
To make jam, you will need:
- 1 kg hawthorn fruit;
- 0.5 kg of sugar.
Recipe
Fruits are washed, peeled and separated from the stalk. After pouring into the pan, and sugar is added to them.
In this form, the ingredients are left for several hours, so that the berry has let the juice. Then put the pot on the fire. 
When the contents begin to boil, the flame on the burner must be reduced so that the jam does not run away. In the process of cooking you need to stir the product so that it does not stick to the bottom of the dish. 
To understand whether the jam is cooked or not, it is necessary to drop it on a cold surface. The finished product will retain the shape of a drop. But remember, after cooling it will thicken. Jam is poured into pre-sterilized jars and rolled. If you do not want to store it for a long time, you can tightly close the jar with a regular lid and put it in the fridge. 
Important! During cooking it is necessary to increase the power of the burner flame gradually. This is necessary so that the juice is completely separated from the berries, and they are not burnt.Not only its berries are valuable in hawthorn. Leaves, flowers, bark are also used for medicinal purposes. The main thing - to remember that everything is useful with moderate use.
