Here is one more home remedy for cough. This is for general cough especially for the persistence ones.
Please note that this is more for the cough that doesn’t go away. It is not the home remedy to be used when you or your love one catch a cold. Please seek professional help for those. Of course, this home remedy will not make the situation worse, but it will not help with cold, fever, and other acute symptoms.
So, why orange, not tangerine? The main reason is that I have difficulty telling them apart, so I just picked one that sounds better in my ears. From my experience, both works well, and both work slightly differently. I believe if you look around online, you will be able to find some home remedy for both of them. Here is the basic rule of thumb.
- Both orange and tangerine has the benefit of increasing the flow or saliva, moisten the mouth, benefit the lung. In English, it means that both orange and tangerine have the function of making the mouth and throat moist. Hence, reduce the itchy or irritation that cause cough.
- Orange in Chinese Medicine has the property of neutral and sweet, so orange adds benefits to the stomach and spleen and nourish Yin of those two organ. It means that orange is good for cough that is dry, and it is also safer for long term use.
- Tangerine on the other hand, has the property of acid and bitter, and it also has the additional function of moisten the lung, stopping coughing, and reducing phlegm. Yes, tangerine is with more functions, and one of them directly say “stopping coughing”. However, because tangerine is also warm and damp in its property, long term use of it might cause discomfort of stomach and some other heat symptoms. Simply put, it will be good to use tangerine to reduce phlegm and quicker stopping cough, but it is not good for long term use.
Alright, that should be enough for the theory. This easy to prepare home remedy can be prepared in the following steps:
- Soak orange or tangerine in salt water for 15 minutes. For 1 cup of water, 1 tea spoon of salt is enough. (This step is optional. It is in some recipes, but most of the recipe skip this step. I think the idea is to clean the orange or tangerine better.)
- Cut the top of the orange or tangerine as how it is in the picture above, and add about 1/2 to 1 tea spoon or salt to the opening area. To have better result, some people recommend using fork or chopsticks to poke salts into the orange/tangerine.
- Place the top of the orange or tangerine back to close the opening. Then put the orange in a bowl without water. Then place this in a steamer for 15 minutes.
- Serve when it is warm.
Eat this orange or tangerine and drink everything in the bowl while it is still warm. Don’t eat the peels. For kids and baby, use orange first as it is milder. For those who don’t like to eat the orange or tangerine, you can just squeeze the juice out and drink the juice. Enjoy!