Hawthorn 2

Holy Basil
Text by Rosalee de la Forêt.
Illustrations by Tatiana Rusakova
Ebook designed by Tudor Maier
©2019 Rosalee de la Foret, LLC. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without written permission of the author.
The herbal and plant information in this Workbook is for educational purposes only. The information
within the Workbook is not intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other
medical professional. If you have or suspect that you have a serious health problem, promptly contact
your health care provider. Always consult with a health care practitioner before using any herbal remedy
or food, especially if pregnant, nursing, or have a medical condition.
Published by Rosalee de la Forêt, LLC, Carlton, WA
First digital edition, September 2019. Published in the U.S.A.
Hawthorn 3

Table of Contents
Hawthorn Summary....................................................................................4
For the Physical Heart................................................................................5
For the Emotional Heart.............................................................................5
For Digestion................................................................................................6
Botanically Speaking...................................................................................6
Plant Preparations.......................................................................................7
Special Considerations................................................................................7
References.................................................................................................8
Looking for Hawthorn?................................................................................9
About Rosalee............................................................................................10
Hawthorn 4

Hawthorn Summary
Botanical name: Crataegus spp.

Family: Rosaceae

Parts Used: leaves, flowers, berries

Energetics: slightly cooling, neutral

Taste: sour, sweet

Plant Properties: cardiac trophorestorative, relaxing nervine,

digestant, astringent, diuretic, antioxidant

Plant Uses: heart-related illness, cardiac weakness, stagnant

digestion, regulating blood pressure

Plant Preparations: tea, tincture, vinegar, foody

On a recent trip to Ireland I fell in love with hedges. Lining the roads and fields, these boundaries of stone
walls and plants are teeming with life. Hawthorn shrubs were some of the most prominent plants along
the hedges, sometimes growing close to the stones, other times shooting far beyond the original stone
fence. I walked along those hedges for miles and miles, infatuated with the abundance of hawthorn’s
red berries, the gnarly and textured branches, and the many haphazard spines. I snapped photo after
photo, thinking to myself, “What a beautiful world we live in to have such abundant heart medicine
growing just outside people’s front doors.”

In European traditions, hawthorn is immersed with mystery and folklore. In the spring its branches are
filled with white to pink blossoms that attract countless pollinators. The scent of the flowers has been
described as everything from death and decay to divine and erotic. Depending on the location, hawthorn
is often found blooming in late April and early May, and has long been associated with Beltane, the cross
quarter holiday between the spring equinox and summer solstice.
Hawthorn 5

For the Physical Heart

Hawthorn is easily our most beloved herb for the heart. And while we can classify it with a handful
of medicinal herbal actions, such as anti-hypertensive, anti-anginal, or anti-cholesterolemic, a better
understanding is that hawthorn nourishes and protects the heart. As a result, hawthorn’s virtues benefit
a wide variety of heart-related problems.

Modern research has focused on hawthorn’s effects on the physical heart. Large long-term and short-
term studies have shown that hawthorn offers many benefits for people who already have mild to
moderate heart disease. Studies have specifically shown improvement for ankle edema, general cardiac
performance, reduced blood pressure, improved cholesterol, fatigue, pain with increased exertion, and
palpitations.1,2,3,4,5 Researchers have concluded what herbalists have long known, that “hawthorn has a
clear benefit for patients with mild to moderate heart failure.”6

How does hawthorn provide so many benefits for the heart? Like most herbs, hawthorn works in many
ways, some of which we may never fully understand. Here’s what we do know.

Hawthorn is rich in flavonoids that are known to protect the cardiovascular system.7 Much of the heart
disease in the western world is related to chronic inflammation. Regularly enjoying herbs and foods
high in these flavonoids can protect the heart from oxidative stress.

For the Emotional Heart

Hawthorn not only protects the physical heart in ways that we can objectively measure, such as blood
pressure and cholesterol levels, it also nourishes and soothes the spiritual and emotional heart.
Herbalists regularly use hawthorn as a general relaxing nervine, as well as for heartbreak and grief.

Rebecca Altman recommends a combination of hawthorn, rose, and devil’s club to work with connections
to the past, associations with ancestry, and diving into that which is unseen.

The first herb I think of in connection with the health of our dear hearts is the sacred hawthorn tree, beloved
of the mischievous faeries and all who believe that a life devoid of magic is not really worth living.
Robin Rose Bennet
The Gift of Healing Herbs
Hawthorn 6

For Digestion
While hawthorn presently is most famous for its benefits for the heart, it was historically more often used
for digestion. In Chinese Medicine the traditional indication for hawthorn berries was for indigestion
caused by food stagnation, especially in relation to too much greasy food and meat.8

Pedanius Dioscorides (c. 40-90 CE) and Adam Lonicer (1528-1586 CE) both used the berries for diarrhea.9
In his book, Planetary Herbology, Michael Tierra recommends the green fruit for diarrhea and the
roasted and charred fruits for both diarrhea and dysentery-like disorders.10

Botanically Speaking
There are over 280 species of hawthorn trees growing
around the world. Many are interchangeably used. The
most commonly used species are Crataegus monogyna,
C. oxyacantha, and C. laevigata. Hawthorns can easily
hybridize, making definitive identification difficult.

This section describes Crataegus monogyna.

C. monogyna is native to Europe, Asia, and parts of Africa. It

has been widely distributed across the world.

It can grow as a shrub or a tree reaching 15 to 45 feet tall.

The bark and branches are brown and the wood is very
hard. It was historically prized for making a variety of tools.

Thorns ranging from 1/2 inch to 1 inch long are found along
the branches.

The leaves grow from 1 to 1 1/2 inches long and are oval and
deeply lobed.

The flowers bloom from April to June depending on location. As typical of the rose family, the flowers
have five white petals and many stamens. The flowers grow in clusters and are about 1 cm in diameter.

In late summer to fall the berries (or haws) ripen to a deep red. Each haw (technically a pome fruit)
contains a single seed. The fruits persist well into the winter and are important foraging for wildlife.
Hawthorn 7

Plant Preparations
Hawthorn leaves, flowers and berries (haws) can be used as medicine. All three are commonly used as
medicine for the heart, and they can be prepared separately or in combination with each other.

The berries can be infused into honey, made into tea, cooked down to form a condiment like ketchup,
or made into jam. They can also be extracted into vinegar or alcohol.

The leaves and flowers make a nice tea or a nourishing herbal infusion and are noticeably astringent.
The leaves and flowers can also be extracted into alcohol.

In Chinese medicine it is specifically the berries that are used for stagnant digestion.

Dosage Suggestions

Hawthorn berries are a food-like herb that can be consumed in larger amounts, as you would a food. For
best results with the berries, leaves, or flowers, use it daily and long-term.

The therapeutic doses for hawthorn are as follows:

• As tea: up to 30 grams of berries, and up to 30 grams of leaves and flowers, per day
• As tincture (fresh berries): 1:1, 40–60% alcohol, 5 mL, 3 to 5 times per day
• As tincture (dried leaf and flowers): 1:5, 30% alcohol, 5 mL, 3 times per day

Special Considerations
• People taking heart medications such as digitalis and beta blockers should consult with an
experienced practitioner before taking hawthorn.
• Large dosages of the leaf and flower may cause stomach upset in some individuals. If this happens,
decrease the amount.
Hawthorn 8

References

1. Dalli, E., et al. “Crataegus Laevigata Decreases Neutrophil Elastase and Has Hypolipidemic Effect: A Randomized, Double-
Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.” Phytomedicine 18, no. 8–9 (2011): 769–75. doi:10.1016/j.phymed.2010.11.011.

2. Asgary, S., et al. “Antihypertensive Effect of Iranian Crataegus Curvisepala Lind.: A Randomized, Double-Blind Study.”
Drugs under Experimental and Clinical Research 30, no. 5–6 (2003): 221–25.

3. Walker, Ann F., et al. “Hypotensive Effects of Hawthorn for Patients with Diabetes Taking Prescription Drugs: A Randomised
Controlled Trial.” British Journal of General Practice 56, no. 527 (2006): 437–43.

4. Tauchert, Michael, Amnon Gildor, and Jens Lipinski. “[High-Dose Crataegus Extract WS 1442 in the Treatment of NYHA
Stage II Heart Failure].” Herz 24, no. 6 (1999): 465–74.

5. Holubarsch, Christian J F, Wilson S Colucci, Thomas Meinertz, Wilhelm Gaus, Michal Tendera, and Survival and Prognosis:
Investigation of Crataegus Extract WS 1442 in CHF (SPICE) trial study group. “The Efficacy and Safety of Crataegus Extract
WS 1442 in Patients with Heart Failure: The SPICE Trial.” European journal of heart failure 10, no. 12 (2008): doi:10.1016/j.
ejheart.2008.10.004.

6. Habs, M. “Prospective, Comparative Cohort Studies and Their Contribution to the Benefit Assessments of Therapeutic
Options: Heart Failure Treatment with and without Hawthorn Special Extract WS 1442.” Forschende komplementrmedizin
und klassische Naturheilkunde [Research in Complementary and Classical Natural Medicine] 11, no. suppl. 1 (2004): 36–
39. doi:10.1159/000080574.

7. Orhan, Ilkay Erdogan. “Phytochemical and Pharmacological Activity Profile of Crataegus Oxyacantha L. (hawthorn) - A
Cardiotonic Herb.” Current medicinal chemistry (2016).

8. Bensky, Dan, Andrew Gamble, and Erich Stöger, comps. Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica. 3rd ed. Seattle,
Washington: Eastland Press, 1993. 637.

9. Ross, Jeremy. Combining Western Herbs and Chinese Medicine: Principles, Practice & Materia Medica. Seattle: Greenfields
Press, 2003.

10. Tierra, Michael. Planetary Herbology. Twin Lakes, WI: Lotus Press, 1988.
Hawthorn 9

Looking for Hawthorn?

Here’s some ways you can find hawthorn berries, leaves and flowers.

1. Search for herbal apothecaries near you.

2. Visit my listing of herb farms and wildcrafters within the US and Canada to find fresh herbs near you.

3. Visit Mountain Rose Herbs, an online apothecary that sells high quality organic herbs. They are my
first choice for herbs I’m not able to find near me.
Hawthorn 10

About Rosalee

R
osalee de la Forêt, is passionate about
helping you explore the world of herbalism
and nature connection. She is the Education
Director at LearningHerbs, a registered herbalist
with the American Herbalist Guild, and the author
of the bestselling book Alchemy of Herbs: Transform
Everyday Ingredients into Foods and Remedies
that Heal as well as the online courses The Taste
of Herbs, Herbal Cold Care, and Apothecary: The
Alchemy of Herbs Video Companion.

Get more herbal recipes and and exclusive herbal

trainings at: HerbsWithRosalee.com.

Ready for more?

Get your copy of Alchemy of Herbs
at your favorite bookseller.

Then register for your bonuses at

AlchemyOfHerbs.com