Almond and orange can be used to treat wet cough, wet asthma and constipation. According to traditional Chinese medicine, there is connection between lungs and large intestine. Many herbs that affect lungs are usually affect large intestine as well. Both almond and orange are downwarding herbs and affect lungs and large intestine. Almond and orange lead Qi (life force) and fluids from lungs downward to large intestine. That is why almond and orange have two effects:
1. Dry up mucus in lungs, therefore relieve wet cough and wet asthma.
2. Moisturize large intestine, therefore relieve constipation.
When using almond and orange to treat cough, asthma and constipation, it is recommended to use bitter almond and chen pi (bitter orange peel, sun-dried tangerine peel, mandarin tangerine peel). If you cannot find bitter almond and chen pi, you can use sweet almond and dried orange peel. But the effects of sweet almond and orange peel are not as strong as bitter almond and chen pi.
How to use almond and orange to treat cough, asthma and constipation? Here is a formula:
– Bitter almonds 15g
– Chen pi (dried orange peel) 15g
– Water 1.5 cup
– Boil and simmer for 15 minutes
– Drain
– Add 2 cups of wate to boil the drained herbs for 30 minutes
– Mix the two extracts
– Dink half in morning, and half in afternoon
If you do not want to boil the herbs everyday, you can use 5 times of the above amounts (bitter almonds 75g and chen pi 75g) to make 5 days of decoction, and store it in the refrigerator.
If you are not suffering from wet cough or asthma, but just constipation, you can add honey to the decoction. This will reinforce the effects of moisturizing large intestine.
If you are suffering from cough or asthma, to prevent fluid loss in lungs due to the drying effects of almond and orange, you can also add honey to moisturize lungs, except there is a lot of mucus in lungs.
Please note, almond and orange peel are downwarding herbs and they reduce lung fluids, if you have underlying weakness of lungs, dry coughs (dry cough is different from a wet cough) or Qi deficiency, you should not use this remedy. And this remedy also should not be used in early stage of cold and flu with coughs.
