Horse chestnut: application in medicine

Chestnut horse is a tall, powerful deciduous tree up to 30 meters high, with a thick and dense crown, yellowish white or white flowers collected in bunches 20-30 cm in length.

The native land of this tree is the southern part of the Balkans. And in Europe it has been grown since the 16th century.

Procurement for medicinal purposes

For medicinal purposes, fruits and seeds are used for alcohol, oil and high-quality starch, bark, leaves, peel of seeds and chestnut flowers - for the manufacture of medicines. Seeds and their peel are harvested in autumn, leaves from May to September (before yellowing), bark in the spring, and flowers in May, during the flowering period. Raw materials must dry well.

Chemical composition

In medicine, horse chestnut has found its application due to its rich chemical composition and medicinal properties.

In all parts of the chestnut found many useful substances. Its flowers contain tannins, guanine, glycosides, flavonoids, quercetin, rutin, saponins, pectins, sugars, escin, choline, uric acid, adenine, adenosine, mucus.

In the cortex there are glycosides (esculin, esculetin, escin), saponins, allantoin, fatty oil, ascorbic acid, thiamine, phytosterol, quercetin, tannins, sugars, phytosterols.

In fruits (seeds) - fatty oil, starch, saponins, escin glycosides and esculin, tannins, protein, sugar, protein substances, ascorbic acid, tannins, arginine, bitterness, vitamin K and group B.

The leaves contain carotenoids, flavonoids (quercetin, isokvertsitrin), tannins, rutin.

Useful properties of all parts of horse chestnut

In folk medicine horse chestnut application found extensive because of its beneficial properties. Decoctions and infusions of the cortex have analgesic, astringent, anti-inflammatory, hemostatic and anticonvulsant effects. Infusions of flowers have anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties, seeds - anti-inflammatory, and peel of seeds - hemostatic, anti-inflammatory and analgesic.

Horse chestnut treatment

Broths from the bark of the tree are used as an effective internal and external means for hemorrhoids with bleeding, chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (including with increased acidity and diarrhea), diseases of the liver, spleen, gall bladder, respiratory tract, edema, runny nose with inflammation of the mucosa , Malaria, anemia, bronchitis, tuberculosis, to relieve inflammation and vasospasm, to improve digestion. In addition, decoction from the cortex is used as a hemostatic in the case of internal bleeding, especially uterine bleeding, and also as a good remedy for neuralgia, rheumatism, sciatica and gout.

Horse chestnut application found and in the form of juice from fresh flowers. It is recommended to take when swollen and inflamed hemorrhoids and knots, with hemorrhoidal pains, atherosclerosis, trophic ulcers of the legs. In addition, it is able to heal horse chestnut varicose veins, as well as to eliminate extensions and thrombosis of veins on the legs.

Preparations based on the fruits of this kind of chestnut have a beneficial effect on the protein composition of our blood, well reduce its coagulability and are used to treat vascular diseases. Also these drugs expand arteries, strengthen capillary vessels, are used in the treatment of patients with high blood pressure, capillary hemorrhages, hemorrhagic diathesis, and also for the prevention of hemorrhages in hypertension. Medicines with horse chestnut fruits are used for varicose veins, trophic ulcers of the legs, chronic and acute thrombophlebitis, violation of peripheral arterial blood circulation (arthritis, small blood vessel thromboembolism or arteriosclerosis of the extremities), inflammation of necrotic hemorrhoids, to reduce swelling. Fresh fruits - with malaria and chronic diarrhea, and fried - with hemorrhoidal or uterine bleeding.

Infusion of alcohol from finely chopped fruits is applied externally with a gout for lubricating joints.

Horse chestnut application was also found for the treatment of intimate areas of both sexes. The skin of the fruit after boiling is used by women with whitening for syringing, and the extract from chestnut crusts removes inflammation of the prostate gland in men.

Infusion of chestnut leaves and decoction from dry nuts are recommended for inflammatory diseases of the respiratory tract, while leaves in fresh form are an excellent remedy for whooping cough. Bark and chestnut fruits are successfully used for diseases of the digestive tract associated with kidney diseases edema, with nosebleeds.

Infusion of bark, seeds and flowers is used as an astringent and antipyretic for the treatment of rheumatic diseases.

Powder from seeds is taken for colds.

Tinctures and decoctions of flowers of horse chestnut (on vodka or alcohol) are rubbed with arthritic, rheumatic and gouty pains, inside they are used for liver and heart diseases, for anemia, gastritis, dyspnea, pulmonary tuberculosis.

Contraindications

Preparations based on chestnut horse should be used only under the supervision of the doctor and its schemes and dosages, with mandatory control of blood coagulability. Contraindicated horse chestnut with hypotension, low blood viscosity and pregnancy.