Official name: Prunus spinosa L

Other names: Thorn, sloe

Description: The stem is a prickly, highly branched, up to 3 m tall shrub from the Rosaceae family. Each twig is almost horizontal and ends in a sharp thistle. The bark of the stem is always gray-black. The leaves of the herb are uniform, relatively small, with short petioles, broadly elliptic or oblong, alternate, hairy on both sides, and the young ones are curled into the tube. The herb blooms in March-April, before the leaves develop. The flowers are bisexual, about 1.5 cm in diameter, with five creamy white petals, arranged singly or in groups of 2-3 in inflorescences on the branches. The fruit is black-blue, spherical or slightly elongated, hard, covered with a wax coating, with a rough spherical stone. The fruits ripen in September, but remain on the bushes after November until the beginning of winter. The medicinal plant bears abundant fruit almost every year.

Part of the herb used: the fruits (Fructus Pruni) and flowers (Flores Pruni) of thistle

Harvest time: The flowers are picked April - May, in the period of their full bloom by cutting off the top branches and peeling the flowers. The fruits are picked in October - December, if possible, at the onset of frosts, from which they significantly lose their astringency and become tastier.

Chemical Composition/Contents and Properties: The rich and varied chemical composition of thistle explains its wide application in folk and traditional medicine. The flowers contain glycosides, quercetin, kaempferol, flavone glycoside, kaempferin, hydrochloric acid, minerals, waxes, flavonoids. The fruits are rich in sugars, malic acid, resin, fluorescent substance - esculin, pectin, tannins, glycosides, cyanogenic glycosides, vitamin C, anthocyanin dyes, tanning substances, organic acids and others. The chemical composition of the seeds includes fatty oil, calcium and magnesium salts, phosphorus, amygdalin.

Medicinal action and application: The flowers are used as a diuretic and mild laxative, for constipation and stomach pains. The fruits of thistle are used in diaries and various stomach disorders. The leaves are applied in the form of an opening for skin rashes and for the decline of the kidneys and bladder.

Possibilities to offer at the customer's request:

"Vesselino" LTD.  offers its customers the following plants in varieties: 

- fruit (Fructus Pruni) - dried whole, crushed, cut to certain size according to customer's request, ground into herbal powder/flour