Herb
Hawthorn
A hedgerow berry and flower, taken as tea or extract, traditionally treasured as a gentle tonic for the heart and circulation.
⤢📊 How it ranks (our editor score) — 78/100Tap to see the breakdown
🌱 What it is
Hawthorn is a thorny shrub whose berries, leaves, and flowers have a long history of traditional use for supporting heart and circulation health. It's typically taken as tea or a standardized extract.
📜 Where it comes from
Hawthorn has a long history in European folk medicine, where its berries, leaves, and flowers from hedgerow shrubs were gathered as a gentle heart tonic, a use that became especially prominent in nineteenth-century European herbal and early homeopathic practice. It was valued as a slow, supportive remedy rather than an urgent treatment. That reputation as a heart and circulation tonic has carried hawthorn into modern Western herbalism.
✨ Why it's good for you
- Traditionally used to support healthy circulation
- May help support a healthy heart rhythm over time
- Often used to support overall cardiovascular wellness
- May help support calm, steady energy
🥗 Nutrition
Per 100g fresh berries · about 85 calories
- Vitamin C 42mg
- Fiber ~4g
- Flavonoids (antioxidants)
- Potassium
Source: Nutrition estimate (per typical serving)
🥄 How to use it
Steep 1 teaspoon of dried hawthorn berries, leaf, or flower in hot water for 10-15 minutes, one or two cups a day, or take a standardized extract per the label. It works gradually over weeks.
How much: As teaA warm drink made by steeping herbs in hot water. How to make a tea →, 1 teaspoon dried berry/leaf/flower per cup, one to two cups daily; standardized extracts follow the label.
Why it works: Flavonoids dilate blood vessels, improve blood flow, and strengthen the heart muscle.
Show full details & how to prepare it
Hawthorn is a thorny hedgerow tree whose red berries and white blossoms have been treasured for centuries as a tonic for the heart. It's used gently and steadily... to support healthy circulation, a steady rhythm, and the heart's everyday strength.
It makes a pleasant, slightly tart teaA warm drink made by steeping herbs in hot water. How to make a tea → and is also taken as a standardized extract, working slowly over weeks rather than overnight. Because it can deepen the effect of heart and blood-pressure medicines, people who take those typically tell their doctor before adding hawthorn to the mix.
Ways to prepare it
🔬 Let's get technical
The scientific view, plainly reported. Hover a dotted word for its meaning.
What's in it
Hawthorn leaf, flower, and berry preparations contain oligomeric and such as and hyperoside as principal constituents, along with smaller amounts of triterpene acids; standardized extracts used in research are typically characterized by combined procyanidin and flavonoid content.
Mechanism of action
Hawthorn's and constituents have shown activity in animal cardiac tissue studies, meaning they appear to increase the force of heart muscle contraction, alongside evidence of mild coronary and peripheral attributed in part to increased availability in vascular . Antioxidant activity from the flavonoid fraction is also proposed to protect cardiac tissue from oxidative stress, studied mostly in animal models of . Some research additionally reports mild ACE-inhibitor-like activity and effects on cardiac ion channels that could plausibly support the antiarrhythmic and blood-pressure effects seen in some trials, though the precise combination of mechanisms responsible for hawthorn's clinical effects in humans is not fully resolved.
Current pharmacological applications
Standardized hawthorn extract has the most substantial clinical trial base of any cardiovascular herb, with multiple randomized trials in mild-to-moderate chronic heart failure showing modest improvement in exercise tolerance and symptom scores as an adjunct to standard therapy, though a large, well-conducted trial found no significant reduction in mortality. It is studied only as an adjunct alongside, not a replacement for, standard heart failure management in the trials that have tested it. Evidence for hawthorn in mild hypertension or general cardiovascular support outside diagnosed heart failure is considerably thinner.
Every underlined word is collected on the technical glossary.
⚠️ Cautions
- Can interact with heart and blood-pressure medicines, since it may add to their effect... people on those medicines typically loop their doctor in before adding hawthorn.
- Start low; may cause mild dizziness or digestive upset in some.
📚 Learn more
🌿 Deeper natural detail
💬 Ask Remy about Hawthorn
📚 Resource confidence
Based on mentions in health references
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