Rock sugar combined with pear, orange peel or bitter almond can be used to treat cough and sore throat.
Rock sugar (also called rock candy) is a type of confectionery mineral composed of large sugar crystals. It is used in traditional Chinese remedies for centuries, due to its cooling properties.
According to traditional Chinese medicine and food guildelines, sugar in white color is “cooling” and “wet”, and sugar in brown color is “warming” and “dry”. White rock sugar is cooler and wetter than the regular white sugar. So white rock sugar is used to treat cough and sore throat with hot and/or dry symptoms. White rock sugar can cool and moisturize lungs and respiratory system.
The following are three recipes of rock sugar remedies:
1. Rock sugar and pear for dry cough and sore throat
When you suffer from dry cough, there is little or no phlegm that accompanies a cough. That is why we call this type of cough “dry cough”. To treat a dry cough, we should use cooling and moisturizing remedies. So we can use pear and white rock sugar to make a remedy. Both pear and white rock sugar have effects to cool and moisturize upper respiratory tract.
Here is the recipe of rock sugar and pear decoction:
One pear
White rock sugar 20g
Water 500ml
Cut the pear in half and remove the core. Boil them for 20 minutes, drink it and eat the pear, twice a day. This remedy is effective to treat dry cough and sore throat.
2. Rock sugar and orange peel for phlegm-heat cough
A symptom of phlegm-heat cough (wet-heat cough) is that the phlegm is yellow. When you suffer from phlegm-heat cough, you are coughing up a thick yellow phlegm. Yellow phlegm indicates the “fire” (internal heat) in the upper respiratory tract. To treat this ailment, you can use rock sugar and orange peel to make a remedy.
Here is the recipe of rock sugar and orange peel decoction:
Orange peel (from one orange)
White Rock sugar 20g
Water 500ml
Cut the orange peel into small pieces. Boil them for 20 minutes, drink it, twice a day.
3. Rock sugar and bitter almond for wet cough with yellow mucus
Bitter almond 10g
White Rock sugar 20g
Water 500ml
Boil them to make a decoction. Drink it, twice a day. This remedy is effective to treat phlegm-heat cough. Bitter almond removes mucus.
According to traditional Chinese medical theory, yellow mucus indicates internal fire, and white mucus indicates internal coldness. Orange peel and bitter almond remove phlegm, and rock sugar reduces heat. So rock sugar combined with orange peel or bitter almond can treat phlegm-heat cough.
