Hawthorn Leaf and Flower Extract Capsules

Hawthorn is one of the most extensively monographed botanicals in European herbal practice, and the European Pharmacopoeia treats it as two separate articles. Hawthorn leaf and flower (Crataegi folium cum flore) is the whole or cut dried flower-bearing branches of Crataegus monogyna Jacq. and Crataegus laevigata (Poir.) DC. — the species formerly written C. oxyacantha — with a minimum of 1.5% total flavonoids expressed as hyperoside in the dried drug. The dry extract monograph then sets a minimum of 6.0% total flavonoids as hyperoside for hydroalcoholic extracts and a minimum of 2.5% for aqueous extracts, produced using water or a solvent at least equivalent in strength to ethanol 45% V/V. Thovek fills that extract into hard capsules rather than shipping it loose, so a brand can bottle and label without a second contract-manufacturing step. The characterised constituents are flavonoid glycosides — vitexin, vitexin-2''-O-rhamnoside, isovitexin, hyperoside and quercetin — alongside flavans such as (+)-catechin and (-)-epicatechin with their oligomeric procyanidins (OPC), plus triterpene acids including crataegolic, ursolic and oleanolic acid. Which of those you standardise on changes the extract you are buying. Hydroalcoholic dry extracts at drug-to-extract ratios of 4-7:1 are the usual route for flavonoid-declared material; OPC-declared grades are quoted separately because the assay and the achievable yield are different, and a flavonoid figure and an OPC figure are not interchangeable on a label. We build the capsule to either declaration, at 250 mg, 300 mg or 500 mg extract per unit in size 0 or size 1 shells. Shell choice drives the dietary declaration and it is worth stating plainly because buyers get it wrong: the standard HPMC shell is vegan and vegetarian, while a gelatin shell is bovine and must be declared as such on the finished pack. The extract itself carries no milk, egg, soy, fish, crustacean, gluten or nut input. Capsules ship in HDPE jars with induction seals and desiccant, or in bulk drums for brands running their own bottling line, against a batch certificate of analysis covering flavonoid assay, heavy metals, residual ethanol and microbiology. Consignments to the EU and UK also travel with the official certificate DGFT now requires for food supplements containing botanicals. Copy describes composition and pharmacopoeial identity only; any claim wording on the finished pack is the brand owner's responsibility in its own market.