Hawthorn belongs to Chinese medicine for digestion, and medicine and food are homologous. Sweet and sour, slightly warm. Enter spleen, stomach and liver meridians. Its main functions are: promoting digestion, resolving food accumulation, promoting qi circulation and removing blood stasis. Mainly used in three aspects. Include dyspepsia, diarrhea, abdominal pain and colic, chest pain and dysmenorrhea cause by blood stasis.
Xiaoshi stagnation hawthorn is good at digestion and can treat all kinds of food stagnation, especially when you have eaten all kinds of greasy meat and haven't digested it. Anyone who suffers from abdominal distension, belching, acid regurgitation, abdominal pain and loose stool caused by indigestion after eating meat can drink hawthorn in water, and the effect is better. Just as the ancient Chinese medicine book "Simplified Prescription" said, a single taste of decoction does not need to cure meat. If it is combined with radish seeds, medicated leaven and other digestion promoting drugs, the digestion promoting effect of hawthorn can be increased. If it is combined with Radix Aucklandiae and Pericarpium Citri Reticulatae Viride, it can eliminate qi stagnation, and can be used to treat abdominal distension and abdominal pain caused by food stagnation, such as "Uniform Qi Powder" in the Standard for Syndrome Differentiation and Treatment.
Diarrhea, abdominal pain, hernia pain, hawthorn entering the liver meridian, promoting qi circulation and relieving pain. If fried, it can also treat diarrhea and dysentery. For example, in the prescription of medical banknotes, simply decocting burnt hawthorn with water or grinding hawthorn charcoal into powder can be used to treat diarrhea and dysentery. If it is combined with drugs such as radix aucklandiae and areca catechu, the effect will be better. It is often used with orange seed and litchi seed to treat hernia pain.
Pain in chest and abdomen and dysmenorrhea are mild in nature, can enter the liver meridian to divide blood, dredge qi and blood, and have the effects of promoting blood circulation, removing blood stasis and relieving pain. It is often used with Chuanxiong, Ren Tao and Honghua to treat chest and hypochondriac pain caused by blood stasis. Zhu Danxi, an ancient physician, decocted hawthorn with sugar water to treat postpartum abdominal pain, lochia or dysmenorrhea and amenorrhea. There is also Huayu decoction in Jingyue Quanshu, an ancient Chinese medicine book. Hawthorn can be used with Angelica sinensis, Rhizoma Cyperi and Carthami Flos to promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis, and treat chest pain, abdominal pain and dysmenorrhea caused by blood stasis.
Modern research Modern research found that hawthorn contains flavonoids and triterpenoid saponins (ursolic acid, oleanolic acid, maslinic acid, etc. ), saponin tannin, free acid, fatty acid, vitamin C, inorganic salt and red pigment.
Chinese medicine textbooks say that the fatty acids it contains can increase the secretion of digestive enzymes in the stomach, promote fat digestion and improve gastrointestinal function. Hawthorn extract can dilate coronary artery, increase coronary blood flow and protect myocardial ischemia and hypoxia. It can also strengthen the heart, lower blood pressure and resist arrhythmia. At the same time, hawthorn also has the function of reducing blood lipid and preventing atherosclerosis, and its mechanism may be realized by increasing the concentration of high density lipoprotein cholesterol and its subcomponents and increasing cholesterol excretion. In addition, hawthorn can also resist platelet aggregation, antioxidation, enhance immunity, diuresis, sedation, uterine contraction, bacteriostasis and so on. Therefore, modern hawthorn preparation alone has a good effect on coronary heart disease, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and bacillary dysentery.
Therefore, hawthorn, as a unique medicinal and fruit tree species in China, has the functions of lowering blood fat, lowering blood pressure, strengthening heart and resisting arrhythmia, and can also strengthen spleen and stimulate appetite, promote digestion, promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis. It has good curative effect on chest fullness, hernia, blood stasis, amenorrhea and other diseases. Clinical studies have also confirmed that hawthorn can significantly reduce serum cholesterol and triglycerides, and effectively prevent and treat atherosclerosis. 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 can dilate blood vessels and lower blood pressure for a long time. Therefore, patients with hypertension, coronary heart disease and hyperlipidemia. You can drink raw hawthorn 15-30g with water every day instead of tea.
However, it should also be noted that eating more hawthorn can increase gastric acid secretion. It has been reported that eating too much hawthorn can cause gastrolith and intestinal obstruction. Although commercially available hawthorn tablets can promote children's appetite and digestion, they will affect their appetite because of their high sugar content. If eaten in large quantities, long-term consumption will lead to malnutrition and anemia. Therefore, Chinese medicine believes that hawthorn should not be supplemented, and those without stagnation, spleen and stomach weakness and excessive gastric acid secretion should be used with caution or not.