Health benefits of Horse chestnut

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AESCULUS HIPPOCASTANUM (Horse chestnut), this perennial tree of about 20 to 30 meters tall, from which we can find many different species. The flowers of horse chestnut tree are very colorful and as you can see in the picture, they are disposed in very nice clusters. The name Hippocastanum derives from the Latin word for Horse chestnut [1]. WARNING: Horse chestnut is NOT EDIBLE!, see warning at the end of this page.

In spite its popularity in some mediterranean countries, where it is part of traditional recipes, horse chestnut has been proven to exert many health benefits. Scientist and laboratories have investigated some of its active constituents as Aescin, a saponin that has been used to treat venous and microcirculatory problems, proanthocyanidin A-2, effective to lower cholesterol levels...etc. Let's see some of them. Image left: Horse chestnut by Ali T under Creative Commons License (CC BY 2.0).

AESCULUS HIPPOCASTANUM

Family: Sapindaceae
Genus: Aesculus
Common name: Horse chestnut, Conker tree.