Hawthorn, a specialty of the land of China, has become a beloved food for the Chinese people for thousands of years due to its pleasant sweet and sour taste, rich nutritional value, and wide range of health benefits.
Medical books frequently cite hawthorn as a fine medicine.
The records of Chinese medical literature on the efficacy of hawthorn are mainly for promoting the production of body fluids, stimulating the appetite, aiding digestion, and invigorating blood. It can be used to treat indigestion, food stagnation, and abdominal bloating; irregular menstruation, dysmenorrhea, and incomplete lochia after childbirth; and lower back pain. A decoction of hawthorn and water can be used to wash and treat dermatitis and itching caused by paint allergy.
Li Shizhen once specifically recommended hawthorn for its digestive effect on food stagnation: "If one feels bloated and indigestion after a meal, chewing two or three hawthorn fruits will yield good results." He particularly recorded an instance of this: "A neighbor's child, due to food stagnation, had a yellowish complexion and a bloated abdomen like a drum. By chance, he went to a hawthorn tree, ate the fruit until he was full, returned home, and vomited a large amount of phlegm and water, after which his illness was cured." The so-called "hawthorn tree" is, in fact, the hawthorn.
The Qing dynasty physician Zhang Xichun (1860-1933) praised hawthorn's effect on treating irregular menstruation. In his book, "Medical Records of Zhongxi in Harmony," he wrote: "When a woman's period is due but does not arrive, use about two ounces of hawthorn to decoct a soup, dissolve seven or eight qian of brown sugar in it, and drinking it will induce the period. This formula has been tried and proven effective time and again. If the period has not come for several months, taking it several times more will also bring it down." Zhang highly praised the efficacy of hawthorn for irregular menstruation. Of course, from the perspective of modern medicine, hawthorn is not effective for irregular menstruation caused by all causes.
Hawthorn is not only used as a single herb to treat diseases, but more often it is combined with other Chinese herbs to form various prescriptions. A famous example is "Bao He Wan" (Preservation Pill), created by Zhu Danxi. In this formula, hawthorn serves as the "sovereign herb," and is combined with Shenzhu (Massa Fermentata), Banxia (Pinellia Tuber), Fuling (Poria), Chenpi (Dried Tangerine Peel), Lianqiao (Forsythia Fruit), and Laifuzi (Radish Seed). It is taken in pill form and is mainly used to treat gastrointestinal indigestion, nausea and loss of appetite, food stagnation (especially from meat), and the resulting abdominal pain and constipation.