Horse chestnuts, which today are very common ornamental plants in gardens and alleys, have become generally well-known for their majesty, their typical leaves, their beautiful flowers, and their glossy fruits.
The plant can grow 30 metres tall, the leaves are opposite and compound with 5-7 leaflets where the central one is bigger, oval-shaped and palmately divided.
Flowers are gathered in white erect panicles. Fruits are prickly capsules that open when they are ripe and let 2-3 seeds come out, that is sweet chestnuts. Sweet chestnuts have nothing to do with chestnuts, if not the fact they look like them, and are not edible.
In herbal medicine, the bark and seeds have always been used since they contain saponins and bioflavonoids.
The bark is gathered in March, before the tree begins to flower, from grown branches, while the seeds are gathered in autumn when they start falling. Horse chestnut seeds are used to extract escin which is used in pharmaceutical industry.
Horse chestnut has astringent, vasoprotective, anti-haemorrhoids and antiemedigine properties. In popular tradition, horse chestnut is used only externally, since plant active principles are very active but also very irritating for body mucosa.
Relaxing bath: prepare a good soothing bath putting a handful of horse chestnut seed flour in bath hot water. It completely eliminates the feeling of tiredness. It’s necessary to dip completely and relax for at least 15 minutes, without using foamy substances.
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