How to Make Hawthorn Tincture
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Tips on how to use foraged hawthorn berries and vodka to make hawthorn tincture. This autumn recipe follows a folk method and creates a natural medicine that is used for heart health and enhancing memory.
I took a beginner herbalism course at the College of Naturopathic Medicine (CNM) in London many years ago. It was one that focused on home herbalism, supporting your own health, and beginner herbs that could safely aid in wellness. The course was called ‘Herbs for Everyday Living’ and was taught by the mother-daughter team, Lorne Driver-Davies and Jill Rosemary Davies. In that course, I learned about the wonderful medicinal benefits of hawthorn and how to make hawthorn tincture.
Hawthorn can create a powerful yet relatively safe heart medicine for oxygenating the blood, improving circulation, strengthening arteries, and clearing the mind. This hawthorn tincture recipe is based on a larger quantity recipe provided in the course. I’m providing it to you for educational purposes, and in no way am recommending that you use it personally.
Foraging for Hawthorn Berries
Hawthorn Crataegus mongyna is a shrubby hedgerow tree that grows right across Britain and Europe. You can also find it in other parts of the world, including northwest Africa, Asia, and North America. In spring, it bursts to life with deeply loped green leaves that used to be commonly eaten. When at the young and tender stage. Called ‘Bread and Butter’ or ‘Bread and Cheese,’ you’d eat hawthorn leaves in the hungry gap in spring, along with wild garlic, nettles, and anything else that popped up before the first harvests. I’ve had a nibble myself and can’t really recommend them based on flavor!
In late spring, the tree blossoms with beautiful sprays of white blossoms that bees adore. I’ve also heard that they were also used to crown the May Queen at Beltane in ancient tradition. The flowers are important in herbalism too – for making tinctures and decoctions, and even powered and made into pills.
As spring moves into summer, the flowers fade and develop into small red berries affectionately called haws. They can cover the branches in good years and are often still clinging to bare branches in winter. You pick the berries for medicine when they’re in good condition, though, in late summer to early autumn. You can often spot them from a good distance away, and in my region, they turn bright red parts of the hedgerow!
When you forage for haws, be careful of thorns, and pick only the reddest and plumpest ones. If any berries feel squishy, leave them. The only berry you might confuse them with is rose hips, and they often grow side by side in the hedgerow. Rose hips have their own medicinal properties and are delicious as tea too.
Cooking with Hawthorn Berries
Hawthorn berries are edible but have a lot of tannin in them. So if you have a nibble, they’ll make your tongue feel like cotton wool afterward. It’s a weird feeling eating fresh hawthorn berries, but I understand that they make decent ketchup. The berries also contain a lot of pectin. If you mash the berries with your hands, it will set into a kind of jelly with no cooking required.
Haws also contain large seeds that need to be removed if you’re going to use the berries in cooking. The seeds are similar to apple seeds and contain a compound called amygdalin that can change to hydrogen cyanide. There’s a lot of hysteria over this online. However, you’d have to crush and eat hundreds of the seeds to have any negative effects.
There’s a difference between eating hawthorn berries and taking them as medicine. The amounts of active constituents in hawthorn preparations are low when made into jam, fruit leathers, syrup, or other recipes. In tinctures, they are much higher. That’s because alcohol (and water) are very effective at pulling and concentrating them from the berries.
How Hawthorn Tincture can help your Heart
According to Andrew Chevalier, FNIMH, in his book The Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine, hawthorn berries contain bioflavonoids, triterpenoids, proanthocyanidins, polyphenols, and coumarins. These active constituents’ key actions are cardiotonic, relaxant, antioxidant, and also dilate the blood vessels. He says, “Its [hawthorn] main medicinal benefit is due to its bioflavonoid and proanthocyanin content. These constituents relax and dilate the arteries, especially the coronary arteries. This increases the flow of blood to the heart muscles and reduces symptoms of angina.”
However, he also cautions that you should only take hawthorn under professional supervision. I think that’s a wise recommendation, especially if you suffer from heart problems. If you have heart issues and are considering using hawthorn tincture, then please speak to a licensed herbalist or medical practitioner. You could also become a herbalist yourself by enrolling in an accredited program.
Hawthorn as a Heart Medicine
I do have to point out that in the original course, I took, hawthorn was introduced as a safe herb to use on your own to support heart health. I take it that both of my instructors meant under the circumstance that you were educated in herbalism and/or did not have a major heart issue, though. One reason I take hawthorn tincture is that hawthorn can also increase attention levels and clear the mind. Rosemary is another herb that you can take for memory and brain function.
In the CNM course, I also learned that hawthorn berries help build stronger veins and artery walls. This is down to their natural chemical component, rutin, a flavonoid. Taken regularly, it can also regulate blood pressure, improve circulation, and reduce the pain caused by angina. Hawthorn tincture could also be helpful for someone who has blocked veins and arteries due to smoking and cholesterol buildup.
Make Hawthorn Tincture from Haws
One of the most common ways to take hawthorn as a medicine is as a tincture. Tinctures are concentrated plant medicines that use a menstruum, such as alcohol. You mix a small number of berries with the alcohol and let it draw the medicine out. With dosage, it comes down to a matter of drops or teaspoons per day.
Alcohol and water can draw different types of active ingredients from plants and suspend them in the liquid. That means that we can use standard 40% alcohol (80 proof) vodka to extract both the water and alcohol-soluble constituents from haws. 40% alcohol also contains 60% water, and they both work to pull different active constituents from the berries. Tinctures also preserve those constituents for at least two years, so it’s a great way to make a supplement that lasts a long time. Though this recipe focuses on using hawthorn berries, you can also use the flowering tops of hawthorn to make tinctures.
More Foraging and Herbalism Ideas
The recipe for hawthorn tincture is just below, but I have plenty more ideas for you too. Autumn is a time of bounty, and after a warm summer, plants are filled with energy and goodness before their winter sleep. Here’s some foraging and herbalism inspiration to make the most of the season ahead:
- How to Forage Porcini Mushrooms
- Healing Plants to Grow in a Salve Garden
- How to Make Elderberry Syrup
- Grow Herbal Remedies for the Cold and Flu
- I also share how to make calming Chamomile Tincture in my book
Hawthorn Tincture Recipe
Equipment
- large ziplock bag
- Glass Jar
- Muslin
- Funnels
- Dropper bottles
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh hawthorn berries (or 3/4 cup dried)
- 2 cup Vodka* (40-50% alcohol)
Instructions
- Pick the red berries from hawthorn trees in autumn. Choose plump red berries in an area away from traffic.
- Remove the leaves and brittle stems and rinse the berries to remove dust and other impurities. Allow to drip dry in a strainer or sieve. They can still be a little moist for the next step.
- Place the berries in a ziplock bag and then roll over them with a rolling pin. This opens the berries but doesn't crush the seeds inside. You should avoid crushing the seeds when making hawthorn tincture.
- Empty the crushed hawthorn berries into a glass jar. Pour the vodka over them, seal tightly with a lid, then shake for about a minute.
- Store the jar in a dark and cool (to room temperature) place such as a kitchen cupboard. Leave it to infuse for two to four weeks. Shake the jar every couple of days. As the soluble components of hawthorn extract into the vodka, the berries lose their color.
- After the allocated time has passed, strain the hawthorn tincture through a muslin laid over a fine mesh strainer to remove the berries.
- Get every last drop of tincture that you can from the berries. Gather the muslin up and squeeze as much liquid out, as you can. Afterward, discard the berries.
- Pour the tincture through a funnel and into a dark glass bottle. Label it with the type of tincture and the date made, and store it in a cool to room temperature place out of direct sunlight. It has a shelf-life of about two years.
- Adults typically use 2 ml (a few drops) daily. The easiest way to have it is to squeeze the drops into a small glass of water and drink. You can also take the tincture directly under your tongue.
Notes
Nutrition
Can I use poitin to soak the hawthorn berries?
Yes, as long as it’s at/over 80 proof.
So if using dried Hawthorne berries they actually aren’t a lot smaller can I use the same ratio as the fresh berries?
Gail
Hi Gail, when you use dried berries, you need a little more water in the recipe to rehydrate the berries. That’s why the instructions include 3/4 of the amount of berries if using dried.
Thank you! I’m starting to use Hawthorne for heart failure. Am hopeful it will help!
Thank you for your reply. May I ask please, what would be an expected dose rate for a person with high blood pressure?
Is there any literature or book that you could recommend with reliable information in regards to tincture formulas and dose rates, also the question of body weight as per dose is always in my thoughts, is this an issue.
Thank you
Ashley
When you say – Empty the crushed hawthorn berries into a glass jar – does that include the seeds?
thank you
Yes, whole seeds are safe to go in along with the crushed outer berries.
Where I live I can buy pure alcohol (98%), I wonder if this works better or same as vodka? You mentioned that the water also extracts some chemicals so it’s needed, I was thinking to mix the alcohol 50/50 with distilled water. Would that work? Vodka is cheap here but it has added flavouring that I don’t think is needed. What do you think?
Yes, that’s right :) For hawthorn tincture, you can use a 40-50% alcohol solution with the rest made up with distilled water.
If using dried Hawthorn berries purchased online, should they be rehydrated before smashing to make sure the seed does not get crushed with the dried berry if crushing dry? If so, what is the best way to rehydrate?
Hi Rick, no need to rehydrate but use half as much as you would with fresh. I wouldn’t crush the dried berries, either.
I found Hawthorn berries in my local Asian food store.
Will hawthorn tincture help with really high blood pressure? Like 180/100
This is a question to discuss with your doctor and/or certified herbalist
It helped my husband. He noticed a 186 down to 145 within 1/2 hour. You need to monitor your bp before and after. ESPECIALLY if you’re taking a bp med. If it drops to low.. you could be in trouble.
Can I use apple cider vinegar instead of alcohel to make tincture?
Hi Ayub, you need to use alcohol to make tinctures. You can use ACV to make hawthorn oxymels though :)
I made this! Really easy and the tincture tastes almost fruity. The vodka is there but not as strong as I thought it would be.
Hi herbalists ! I live in Quebec, Canada got a woodland, part of it has been cut and wild hawthorn trees are growing there along with wild apple trees and others. The hawthorn fruits I picked from the ground and in the trees were not fully red, more yellowish-orange-pink in general. They have spots and bruises, then I cut them to put them in vodka and found most of them have the center (where the seeds) in dark powder and a larvae of an insect is living there, still alive. I wonder if this can affect the quality of my tincture, the fact that there seem to be spots of fungus on the skin of the fruit, and the larvae inside. Please let me know if you have or can direct me to any general knowledge about tincturing parasited fruits, cheers !
Hi Yannick — when working with any plant material for food, beauty, or medicine, it should be in pristine condition. With hawthorn, it should also be ripe. Avoid plant material that is riddled in worms and insects.
A book that I once read, said that a good handful of apple seeds were toxic, but recommended eating/chewing the whole core as the small amount of cyanide was beneficial.
Where can you buy Hawthorn? Can the pills be used??
How do I buy hawthorn
Great post! I looove hawthorn! What a great idea to make it into a tincture! :)