Pharmacological mechanism of hawthorn fruit and its herb pairs for improving metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease

Yajie GUAN; Qizhen ZHANG; Wenjing WU; Beilei CUI; Junjiao XU; Yijia SONG; Wenxia ZHAO; Minghao LIU

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Pharmacological mechanism of hawthorn fruit and its herb pairs for improving metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease

VernacularTitle:山楂及其药对改善代谢相关脂肪性肝病的药理作用机制
Author: Yajie GUAN ¹ ; Qizhen ZHANG ¹ ; Wenjing WU ¹ ; Beilei CUI ¹ ; Junjiao XU ¹ ; Yijia SONG ¹ ; Wenxia ZHAO ¹ ; Minghao LIU ¹
Author Information

1. Liver Disease （Spleen & Stomach） Diagnosis and Treatment Center， The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine， Zhengzhou 450000， China
Publication Type:Review
Keywords: Hawthorn; Herb Pairing; Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Fatty Liver Disease; Pharmacological Mechanism
From: Journal of Clinical Hepatology 2026;42(9):2203-2208
CountryChina
Language:Chinese
Abstract: Metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease （MAFLD） has become the leading chronic liver disease worldwide. As a classic food-medicine homologous Chinese herb， hawthorn fruit has the functions of promoting digestion to resolve food stagnation and activating blood circulation to resolve blood stasis. Modern pharmacological studies have shown that hawthorn fruit and its active components exert diverse pharmacological activities in regulating lipid metabolism， improving insulin resistance， inhibiting inflammatory response， delaying hepatic fibrosis， and protecting hepatocytes. These effects precisely match the “multiple-hit” pathological features of MAFLD， and thus hawthorn fruit shows significant advantages in the prevention and treatment of MAFLD. Drug pair combination is a key strategy in traditional Chinese medicine to enhance efficacy and reduce toxicity. In clinical practice， hawthorn fruit is often combined with Salvia miltiorrhiza， Alisma orientalis， cassia seed， and Poria cocos， and such combination adheres to the principle of “mutual reinforcement and assistance” to enhance efficacy and expand their application in different syndromes of MAFLD. This article systematically reviews the core pharmacological mechanisms of hawthorn fruit in intervening against MAFLD and the research advances in its classic drug combinations， in order to provide a scientific reference for the in-depth development of hawthorn fruit and its combinations and the precise clinical intervention of MAFLD.