Blackthorn: uses, properties, and tradition

The Prunus spinosa, a native plant of Europe and Western Asia, grows from the Mediterranean region to the mountainous zone at the edges of forests and trails. Also known as Blackthorn or Sloe, it is a thorny shrub belonging to the Rosaceae family, deriving its name from the Greek “prunon“, indicating the fruit of the plum, and the Latin “spinosus“, identifying it as a thorny plant.

 

This shrub can reach a height of 5 meters. The finely fissured trunk has a shiny ash-colored bark. The leaves are alternate, lanceolate, shortly petiolate, with serrated edges. Flowers bloom before the leaves in late winter, are small, white, solitary, or clustered; they have an intense fragrance and are extensively visited by bees. The fruit is a drupe, spherical, about 1 cm, blackish with a blue bloom, with a tart and astringent taste when unripe, becoming sour-sweet at maturity; used to make liqueurs and spirits.

 

Blackthorn flowers are easily distinguishable from those of Firethorn (Cotoneaster pyracantha) and Hawthorn (Crataegus oxyacantha), which are similar in shape but have an inferior ovary and (except for Hedge Hawthorn) 2-5 styles. Additionally, Blackthorn blooms before leaves, while Hawthorn does the opposite.   

 

Blackthorn is used as a graft for Plum and Peach, as it is a hardy plant that adapts to poor and rocky soils. It reproduces through seeding or shoots and is a plant that withstands winter well, living up to forty years. Due to its ease of rooting, it forms thorny thickets so impenetrable that they provide protection for other plants and birds, offering an ideal refuge for nesting.

 

Active ingredients: the flowers contain tannins, amygdalin (lost with drying), quercetin, essential oils, gums, flavonoid glycosides, and resins. The bark collected in September contains abundant tannin. Besides being rich in vitamins, the fruits are characterized by coumarin substance that reduces vascular fragility and is considered similar to aesculin in horse chestnut.

 

 

 

Uses: The flowers, freshly opened, are used as mild sedatives, diuretics, expectorants, as well as to aid digestion and refresh the intestine. Fruits and leaves are used as astringents and diuretics. The juice of the fruits is used externally for gingivitis, stomatitis, and pharyngitis. The bark has astringent properties, making it a valuable astringent and anti-inflammatory for mucous membranes.

 

Traditional uses: For colds, wine containing boiled fruits was consumed; a decoction of the fruits with honey helped with coughs, while the bark decoction was considered febrifuge.

 

Fresh or dried fruits are known for their astringent properties; when well-ripened, they flavor wine and provide liqueurs.

 

The bark can be used as a red dye, historically used for coloring, and the dried leaves act as a tobacco substitute.

 

Sebastian Kneipp, a renowned German priest and inventor of the Kneipp method, called Blackthorn flowers “the mildest laxative that should not be missing in any home pharmacy“.

 

The buds of Prunus spinosa have clinically demonstrated important and interesting therapeutic properties. They reactivate the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis and stimulate the immune system. Their biochemical action allows the reactivation of purine turnover (gout) and the stimulation of the endocrine part of the pancreas (diabetes).

 

“In the case of a weakened immune system due to environmental, chemical, pharmacological, bacterial, and viral pollution, it allows shortening the recovery period after lung diseases.” F. Piterà (Clinical Gemmotherapy Compendium – Ed. De Ferrari, Genoa).

 

In modern herbal preparations, Blackthorn is primarily used as a gemmotherapy derivative, extracted from freshly collected buds. It is a little-known preparation but full of vital energy, generally acting as a tonic and stimulant when the body has been weakened by diseases or challenging, stressful, and polluting situations.

 

Other uses and applications: Flowers, listed in the Swiss pharmacopoeia under “Species depurativae“, are used as diuretics and mild laxatives.

 

A syrup based on Blackthorn is used in anthroposophic medicine as a general tonic and tonic.

 

In homeopathy, Mother Tincture, prepared from fresh young branches at the beginning of flowering, is indicated for neuralgic pains, skin rashes, asthenia, and weight loss.

 

In the cosmetic field, Blackthorn fruits are used to regenerate the skin in the presence of dermatitis, wounds, and mild burns, and also contribute to eliminating fungi and bacteria.

 

 

GIULIA CALDARELLI