Hawthorn (山楂) is commonly seen in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) retail shops but do you know its benefits? Read on to find out how you can make use of its benefits to your advantage during certain times.
Hawthorn’s thermal nature is slightly warm. Hence, if a person is having a sore throat, it is best to avoid eating it at the moment.
There are three main properties of hawthorn.
First, it can help to ease digestion due to overeating. A person who feels overly full after a heavy meal will find hawthorn helpful. Just add 10g of dried hawthorn into a cup of boiling water and drink the water (after it cools down a bit) will help in the digestion.
The second property of hawthorn is that it helps to promote blood flow. Thus, it is a very good food/drink for people who have blood stale body constitution. Hawthorn can disperse blood clogs inside the body so it makes a good regular drink for people who have blood stale constitution.
The third property is that hawthorn helps to lower blood cholesterol. People who have high blood cholesterol will find hawthorn very helpful too.
The recommended daily dosage for hawthorn is 9 to 12g (dried form).
The easiest way to enjoy hawthorn’s benefits is to make it into a drink. You just need to wash and rinse about 10g of dried hawthorn and add boiling water to them. And you can drink it as often as you want and refill the cup for the whole day.
Just a note of caution that people with weak spleen and stomach should avoid consuming hawthorn. Women who are pregnant must avoid eating hawthorn also.
Nowadays you can easily purchase dried hawthorn in most TCM retail shops or online at Amazon here.