Horse chestnut - a tall, powerful deciduous tree up to 30 meters or more in height, with a branched and dense crown, yellowish-white or white flowers, collected in clusters of 20-30 cm in length.
The birthplace of this tree is the southern part of the Balkans. And in Europe, it has been grown since the 16th century.
Harvesting for medicinal purposes
For medical purposes, fruits and seeds for alcohol, oil and high-quality starch, bark, leaves, peel of seeds and chestnut flowers are used for the manufacture of medicines. Seeds and their skin are harvested in autumn, leaves from May to September (until yellowing), bark in spring, and flowers in May, during the flowering period. Raw materials must be well dried.
Chemical composition
In medicine, horse chestnut has found its application due to its rich chemical composition and healing properties.
In all parts of the chestnut, many beneficial substances have been found. Its flowers contain tannins, guanine, glycosides, flavonoids, quercetin, rutin, saponins, pectins, sugars, escin, choline, uric acid, adenine, adenosine, mucus.
In the cortex - glycosides (esculin, esculletin, escin), saponins, allantoin, fatty oil, ascorbic acid, thiamine, phytosterol, quercetin, tannins, sugars, phytosterols.
Fruits (seeds) contain fatty oil, starch, saponins, escin and esculin glycosides, tannins, protein, sugar, protein substances, ascorbic acid, tannins, arginine, bitterness, vitamin K and group B.
Leaves contain carotenoids, flavonoids (quercetin, isocvercitrin), tannins, and rutin.
Useful properties of all parts of horse chestnut
In folk medicine horse chestnut has been widely used 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 have anti-inflammatory properties, and seed peels have hemostatic, anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties.
Horse chestnut treatment
Decoctions from the bark of a tree are used as an effective internal and external agent for hemorrhoids with bleeding, chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (including high 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 inflammatory processes and vasospasm, to improve digestion. In addition, decoction from the cortex is used as a hemostatic agent in case of internal bleeding, especially uterine bleeding, as well as a good remedy for neuralgia, rheumatism, sciatica and gout.
Horse chestnut also found use in the form of juice from fresh flowers. It is recommended to take it with swelling and inflammation of the hemorrhoid cones and nodes, with hemorrhoidal pain, atherosclerosis, trophic ulcers of the legs. In addition, it is able to cure horse chestnut varicose veins, as well as eliminate the expansion and thrombosis of veins on the legs.
Preparations based on the fruits of this type of chestnut have a beneficial effect on the protein composition of our blood, reduce its coagulation well and are used to treat vascular diseases. Also, these drugs expand the arteries, strengthen the capillary vessels, are used in the treatment of patients with high blood pressure, capillary hemorrhage, hemorrhagic diathesis, and also for the prevention of hemorrhage with hypertension. Medicines with fruits of horse chestnut are used for varicose veins, trophic ulcers of the legs, chronic and acute thrombophlebitis, impaired peripheral arterial circulation (arthritis, thromboembolism of small vessels or atherosclerosis of the vessels of the extremities), for inflammation of bleeding hemorrhoid nodes, to reduce. Fresh fruits - with malaria and chronic diarrhea, and fried - with hemorrhoidal or uterine bleeding.
Infusion of alcohol from finely chopped fruits is used externally for gout to lubricate the joints.
Horse chestnut has also found application for the treatment of diseases of the intimate zones of both sexes. The peel of the fruit after boiling is used by women for whitening for douching, and the extract from chestnut peels will relieve male prostate inflammation.
An infusion of chestnut leaves and a decoction of dried nuts are recommended for inflammatory diseases of the respiratory tract, while fresh leaves are an excellent remedy for whooping cough. The bark and fruits of the chestnut are successfully used for gastrointestinal diseases associated with kidney diseases, edema, and nosebleeds.
The infusion of bark, seeds and flowers is used as an astringent and antipyretic for the treatment of rheumatic diseases.
Seed powder is taken for colds.
Tinctures and decoctions of horse chestnut flowers (vodka or alcohol) are rubbed with arthritic, rheumatic and gouty pains, they are used inside for diseases of the liver and heart, with anemia, gastritis, shortness of breath, pulmonary tuberculosis.
Contraindications
Preparations based on horse chestnut should be used only under the supervision of a doctor and according to his schemes and dosages, with mandatory monitoring of blood coagulation. Horse chestnut is contraindicated in case of hypotension, low blood viscosity and during pregnancy.