Cardiovascular Protective Effects of Hawthorn

摘要

Hawthorn has been used as an herbal medicine for treatment of cardiovascular disease in both the east and the west. The hawthorn fruit contains a variety of flavonoids which have been characterized; some of which possess strong antioxidant activity which may account for some of their cardiovascular protective effect. In addition to flavonoids, there are other uncharacterized compounds from the hawthorn fruit which have blood-vessel relaxant and cholesterol lowering activities. The effectiveness of hawthorn in lowering blood cholesterol has been demonstrated in both animal and human studies. The underlying mechanism on the hypocholesterolemic effect of hawthorn appears to be related to LDL receptor regulation as well as modulation of enzyme activities involved in the turnover and transport of cholesterol.