The Latin generic name of hawthorn (Crataegus) comes from a Greek word that translates into Russian as "strong", "sturdy". The hawthorn got this name for its longevity, resistance to adverse conditions and for its hard wood.
In the people, hawthorn blood-red has its own special names - bush barnyard, hawthorn, glod. There are other folk designations of this shrub, even more apt and figurative. So, for example, one of the species of hawthorn, the size of the thorns of which reaches 20 cm, was nicknamed "cock's spur". Folks call hawthorn and "hawk's claws" for their thorns.
The Kyrgyz call hawthorn bazarsha, the Kalmyks call it tolone. In Azerbaijan, hawthorn is known as emishan. In Georgia this thorny shrub is called kuneli, in Armenia - tsrptkin. And the beautiful word paduchel is the Moldavian name for hawthorn.
About hawthorn, as about many plants, numerous legends are composed.
The flowering blood-red hawthorn is considered a symbol of hope, as its blooming heralds the coming of spring.
In Greek myths, hawthorn is dedicated to Hymenaeus, the god of marriage. That is why Athenian women used to decorate their heads with wreaths of hawthorn when getting married.
King Henry VII of England used the blood-red hawthorn as a symbol with Richard III, who in turn chose it as his emblem because he discovered his crown on a hawthorn bush after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. This battle brought him fame.
There are legends about the origin of hawthorn thorns. Here's one of them. One day a little warbler bird was hurrying to its nest to feed its chicks. But suddenly an ominous shadow loomed over her. It was a hawk. The warbler was frightened, scurried from side to side and hid in the thicket of the nearest shrubbery. A stone fell nearby for a feathered raptor to grab the warbler. But he couldn't get into the bushes because he was afraid of the thorns. A large bird like a hawk could not penetrate the thorny thicket, where the little bird hid unharmed. Legend has it that it was at the request of little birds that the prickly thorns on shrubs such as hawthorns grew. Thanks to these spikes, the birds escape from their enemies. That is why warblers and warblers often nest in hawthorn thickets.
There are other tales as well. Many of them explain the name of the plant. One legend tells that a long time ago in Russia lived barynya. All her life she cared about the people around her, helped them in a difficult moment, treated them, gave useful advice. The old lady has grown old and it's time for her to die. But the old woman did not want to die, because she could still do so much good, do so many good deeds. People didn't want the good old lady, their favorite barinya, to die either. So they turned to the sorceress. The good sorceress turned the barnyard into a beautiful bush - hawthorn, which lives a very long time and brings benefits. To this day, the barynya helps people with everything she can: leaves, flowers, fruits, and even thorns.
It has long been known about the healing properties of the hawthorn plant. In the past, the healing power of hawthorn was associated with its thorny branches. It was believed that prickly plants were a defense against evil spirits that would send various diseases. In ancient Greece, they hung hawthorn branches from the gates of their homes to prevent evil from entering the dwelling. The Romans used to put hawthorn branches and leaves in the cradles of their babies to ward off the devil. In Buryatia, hawthorn and rosehip branches are waved over the cradle of a sick child while reciting spells.
Not all peoples consider blood-red hawthorn to be a useful plant. For example, in the ancient Celts hawthorn is known as a tree that embodies winter and darkness. In Moldavia, it is also taken as the personification of evil, in particular, hawthorn is considered the cause of all tumors and abscesses on the legs.
Fruits and flowers of hawthorn have long been used in Russia as a proven folk remedy for heart disease, insomnia, dizziness, shortness of breath. Infusion of hawthorn blossoms witch doctors recommended to take patients with suffocation caused by heart ailments, blood rush to the head ("stroke") and with strong nervous shocks.
Hawthorn plant as a healing remedy is traditionally popular not only in Russia. For example, in German folk medicine, aqueous infusion and alcoholic tincture of flowers and fruits are used for weak heart in old age, palpitations, shortness of breath, increased nervous excitability, insomnia and general weakness of the body due to physical and mental fatigue.
As a medicinal remedy hawthorn plant is known since the time of the famous Greek physician Dioscorides, that is, since the I century. B.C. э.When Dioscorides described all the medicinal plants used in ancient medicine.
Like other medicinal plants, blood-red hawthorn was originally used as part of infusions and decoctions called potions and potions. The secrets of preparing such potions were known to a few and carefully concealed.
Much later, when medicinal plants began to be studied, mentions of the healing properties of hawthorn appeared in special books called healers and herbalists.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. hawthorn could be bought in "zelaya shops", which were available in many Russian cities. The owners of these shops themselves collected medicinal plants and prepared potions and potions from them.
During the reign of Peter the Great, the study and use of medicinal plants acquired a particularly wide scope at the state level. "Apothecary gardens and orchards" are being created. In the garden of the permanent pharmacy established by Peter in Lubki some medicinal wild plants were cultivated. Records have been preserved that hawthorn bushes were among them.
Under Peter the Great, as is known, wild plants were harvested on a large scale. A so-called berry duty was imposed on peasants, which obliged them to collect medicinal plants for pharmacies. Hawthorn picking was compulsory for the inhabitants of many villages.
With the development of chemistry, a more in-depth study of medicinal plants, including hawthorn, began.
Now the secrets of the healing effects of plants have been revealed, and everyone knows that the therapeutic properties of herbs are determined by the presence of biologically active substances (alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, etc.).). From hawthorn began to isolate medicinal substances in pure form, turning into decoctions, tinctures, tablets.
Currently, the hawthorn plant is widely used in medical practice, it entered the official list of medicines. Scientific medicine became interested in this plant relatively recently. Thus, the liquid alcoholic extract of hawthorn fruit was introduced into the practice of treating heart disease by E. Ю. Chasse during World War II.
In modern scientific medicine, hawthorn preparations are used in scientific medicine for heart rhythm disorders (tachycardia), heart neuroses, first-degree hypertension, shortness of breath, insomnia. Studies have found that hawthorn lowers blood pressure, improves sleep in heart patients, reduces the excitability of the central nervous system, increases blood flow in the coronary vessels of the heart and brain vessels.
Prof. D. М. Russian believes that hawthorn preparations work well in functional heart disease, thyroid diseases accompanied by palpitations, and in weakening the activity of the heart muscle after suffering from various diseases. Hawthorn extract has a stimulating effect on the tired heart, eliminates palpitations, destroys pain and heaviness in the heart area and improves overall health.
Hawthorn preparations, reducing the excitability of the heart muscle, contribute to increase its contractility, improve coronary and cerebral blood flow, as well as relieve tachycardia and arrhythmia, eliminate the painful sensations in the heart area.
Hawthorn blood-red is prescribed for internal use in the form of extract, tincture, drops or as part of collections.
Man uses not only hawthorn blood-red, but also some other species of this plant. In medicine, the fruits and flowers of hawthorn prickly or common hawthorn are used. This species of hawthorn is European, it is found in small numbers only in the Baltics (Baltic Sea coast in Kaliningrad region) and in Transcarpathia. It is most often cultivated as an ornamental plant.
Hawthorn blood-red is very close to hawthorn Daurian, replacing it in Eastern Siberia, Priamurye and some areas of Primorye. It is characterized by lighter-colored (sometimes orange-red) fruits, usually glabrous, oblong-rhombic leaves. The fruit of this shrub has four seeds.
In medicine, also use the fruits of hawthorn unipinnate and Altai hawthorn..
