Crataegeus oxyacantha Health Dictionary

Linn.

Family: Rosaceae.

Habitat: British and European hedge plant, met with in the temperate Himalayas of Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh at an altitude of 1,800-3,000 m. (The plant does not thrive in the plains of India.)

English: English Hawthorn.

Folk: Ring, Ringo, Pingyat, Phindak, Ban Sanjli (Punjab hills).

Action: Coronary vasodilator (strengthens heart muscle without increasing the beat in coronary arteries), antispasmodic, antihypertensive, sedative to nervous system, diuretic.

Key application: In cases of cardiac insufficiency Stage II as defined by NYHA (New York Heart Association). An improvement of subjective findings as well as an increase in cardiac work tolerance, a decrease in pressure/heart rate product, an increase in the ejection fraction and a rise in the anaerobic threshold have been established in human pharmacological studies. (German Commission E, WHO.)

The active principles include oligo- meric procyanidins and flavonoids.

The drug is official in Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia of India.

Contraindicated in low blood pressure, chest pain, bleeding disorders. The herb may interfere with therapeutic effect of cardiac drugs. (Sharon M. Herr.) Preparations based on hydroal- coholic extracts of Crataegus monogy- na or C. laevigata are used as Hawthorn in the Western herbal.