In many parts of the world, when it’s the cold season, chestnut stands pop up everywhere, and the appetising aroma of roasted sweet chestnut waft through the streets. Very similar in appearance, horse chestnut bestows many gifts on your skin.
But you shouldn’t confuse horse chestnut with chestnut. The ones you can eat and toast over fire in the cold season are edible nuts coming from the true chestnut (Castanea sativa). Horse chestnut is full of compounds that your skin will love but exactly these substances might land you in a hospital when you eat it. Well, it’s not exactly that it’s deadly poisonous, it’s even used in medicine. It’s the classic “the dosage makes the poison”.
Horse chestnut
The horse chestnut tree (Aesculus hippocastanum) is a wide spread plant. It grows well in temperature climates in the northern hemisphere. It grows to about 30 metres tall and has long green leaves that look a bit like a hand.
Although the seeds look confusingly similar, the horse chestnut is not related in any way to the edible sweet chestnut. In English, the unrelated horse chestnut got their names just because the nuts look so similar.
Its botanical name reveals what it was used for (Aeculus comes from Latin edere “to eat”). The second part, hippocastanum, also Latin means horse chestnut. In the New Kreuterbuch compiled by Leonhart Fuchs in the 16th century, it mentioned that feeding horse chestnut seeds to horses can help them with their respiratory problems. Most probably someone observed Turks feeding horse chestnuts to panting horses and it seemed to help.
The horse chestnut is slightly poisonous to humans and some mammals, but not to squirrels or deer. It’s not dangerous to touch horse the chestnut but it can cause sickness when eaten, especially raw or unprocessed.
It’s because horse chestnut contains a group of saponins, which are collectively known as aescin (or escin). Plants and seeds containing saponins can make a natural cleanser. Added to skin care, they give a gentle soapy feel. Like many many poisonous plants, it can be used in (traditional) medicine with the right dosage and when properly prepared.
Uses
Modern science found that horse chestnut can increase the pressure of blood flow through the veins and strengthen the connective tissues surrounding the capillary system.
Thanks to the saponins aescin, horse chestnut thins the blood and reduces the leakage of fluid from veins and capillaries. It’s also slightly diuretic which means it ever so slightly promotes fluid removal and makes you go more often to the restroom.
Chestnut seed also shows anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity, that’s because it contains several antioxidant substances. Other than aescin, antioxidants including quercetin and kaempferol are also present. And the greater antioxidant effects may come from synergistic effects of all substances working together.
In short, horse chestnut acts as a blood thinner and counters water retention which helps reduce swelling. Then, it reduces inflammation and the antioxidants present prevent cell damage.
Gives you a glow
When applied to your skin, horse chestnut has and different impact on your skin than how it affects you internally. It still helps with reducing overall inflammation and swelling as well as promotes healthy circulation. Containing antioxidants, horse chestnut can also protect your skin from cell damage.
Gentle natural cleanser
Horse chestnut contains saponins, just like adzuki beans. This makes them a gentle cleanser. The seeds, bark, and leaves have high saponin content.
The seeds also have starches, proteins, and sugars. Just like any seed or nut, it also contains fatty acids including oleic, linoleic, stearic, and palmitic acids.
The bark contains scopolin, fraxin, and esculin which are not present in the seeds. The leaves have similar substances to the bark. Both don’t yield fatty acids or only in small traces.
Anti-ageing
In addition to protecting skin cells against the effects of the sun and pollution as an antioxidant, the horse chestnut has another trick up its sleeves. The saponin aescin is known to protect your skin’s hyaluronic acid content.
It hinders the enzyme hyaluronidase from properly work and break down hyaluronic acid. This acid is a natural moisturising factor in your skin. It’s one of the components involved in tissue repair.
Imagine you had a bit too much sun. After a sunburn, the cells in your skin are slower in producing hyaluronic acid but instead increase its breakdown. This is just one example of how getting too much sun can lead to your skin to age prematurely.
It also blocks the enzymes that break down collagen and elastin and so not only prevents capillaries to leak fluid but improves the elastic strength of veins and stabilises the collagen and elastin in your skin. Improving the elastic strength of veins can result in reducing overall inflammation and swelling in the areas applied.
Protect from UV radiation
Since chestnut has antioxidant qualities, in particular, aescin can bind UV radiation, it’s an important ingredient in sunscreen formulations.
Chestnut harvesting
Sweet chestnut and horse chestnut seeds look very similar. Both are brown and have a light-coloured spot. While both are beneficial for your skin, horse chestnut is toxic for humans.
There are a few things that help you avoid mixing them up. First, you can look at the husk. Edible sweet chestnut has a brown, spiny husk with a tinted tassel on the tip. The horse chestnut husk is thick and green. The spines are few, more widely spaced, and short.
The location can also give you a hint if it’s the sweet chestnut or the horse chestnut. While you often see horse chestnut trees in parks, alleys, and school yards, sweet chestnut trees generally grow in woods or groves.
The good thing is that both offer your skin gifts. They are both potent antioxidants. But only horse chestnut contains the saponins aescin, which is also why sweet chestnut is edible and horse chestnut poisonous.
How to use
Brands are starting to add horse chestnut extract to their product lines. You probably can also visit a spa and can get a face and body treatment to promote circulation and provide relief for tired arms and legs.
The bottom line
Horse chestnut has some pretty powerful goodies that are soothing and relieve inflammation, can protect from cell damage, and increase blood flow. It literally gives you a glow with better circulation. It’s also added in anti-ageing products because it can reduce the appearance of wrinkles.
