Hawthorn Berry Extract

Hawthorn berry extract is produced from the dried false fruit — the pome, or haw — of Crataegus. Thovek works with the European species Crataegus monogyna Jacq. and Crataegus laevigata (Poir.) DC. (synonym Crataegus oxyacantha) and with Chinese hawthorn, Crataegus pinnatifida Bunge. The species actually used is named on every certificate of analysis, because the flavonoid and procyanidin profiles differ between them and a substitution shows up immediately in a customer's HPLC. This is a fruit article: hawthorn leaf-and-flower extract is a different product with a different monograph and a different marker set, and the two must not be interchanged on a bill of materials. Two marker families are used commercially. The flavonoids are quantified either as total flavones by UV against rutin — 2%, 5%, 10% and 20% are the routine grades — or by HPLC against vitexin (C21H20O10, MW 432.38, CAS 3681-93-4); related C-glycosides in the plant include vitexin-2''-O-rhamnoside (C27H30O14, MW 578.52, CAS 64820-99-1) and the flavonol glycoside hyperoside (C21H20O12, CAS 482-36-0). The second family is the flavan-3-ol series: (+)-catechin, (−)-epicatechin and the oligomeric procyanidins led by procyanidin B2, reported by the European Pharmacopoeia colorimetric method as procyanidins expressed as cyanidin chloride (C21H21ClO11); OPC grades from 5% to 25% are available. For orientation only, the Ph. Eur. monograph for hawthorn leaf and flower (01/2021:1432) sets a minimum of 1.5% total flavonoids expressed as hyperoside on the dried drug. That limit governs the leaf-and-flower herb and should never be copied across onto a berry specification, a mistake that turns up regularly in buyer-supplied specs. Hawthorn is a Rosaceae pome fruit, in the same family as apple and pear. It is not a regulated allergen in the EU, US or India, but customers who screen for pome-fruit or birch-pollen-associated sensitivities should record the family in their own documentation. The extract is vegan and vegetarian, with no milk, egg, soy, fish, crustacean, gluten, peanut or tree-nut input. One commercial point deserves attention before an order is placed: in a number of EU member states Crataegus preparations are regulated as traditional herbal medicinal products under the EMA/HMPC framework rather than as food supplements, so the same powder can be a food ingredient in one market and a medicinal starting material in another, with a different GMP and licensing expectation attached. Brand owners position hawthorn in heart-and-circulation wellness ranges; Thovek describes composition only, makes no therapeutic claim, and leaves claim substantiation to the customer. Each lot ships with a full certificate of analysis, chromatograms, residual-solvent, heavy-metal and microbiological data, species and origin declarations, and non-irradiation and non-ethylene-oxide statements on request.