ABSTRACT
Hawthorn refers to the plant Crataegus and is widely distributed throughout the northern temperate regions of the world with approximately 280 species primarily in East Asia, Europe, and North America. Hawthorn fruit tastes sour and sweet and is traditionally used as herbal medicine in China to cure scurvy, constipation, digestive ailment, dyspnea, and kidney stones. In the last several decades, hawthorn fruits have been primarily used in China and Europe for treatment of various cardiovascular disorders (1-4). Consumption of hawthorn fruit has been shown to have long-term medicinal benefits to the cardiovascular system (5, 6). The hawthorn fruit has positive effect in treatment of the early stages of congestive heart failure (7, 8) and angina pectoris (9). To explore the biochemical mechanisms by which hawthorn fruit possesses such beneficial effects, this chapter focuses mainly on the three major biological properties of hawthorn fruits, viz., hypolipidemic, antioxidant, and blood-vessel-relaxing activity. As many species of the hawthorn plant are distributed throughout the world, the research data we present in this chapter were from the species Crataegus pinnatifida Bge. Var. major N. E.Br. This species is grown mostly in northeastern China and is used frequently in traditional Chinese medicine.
