What are the effects and functions of cardamom?

Cardamom has many pharmacological effects. This common Chinese medicine can be used in many prescriptions, especially for treating weak spleen and stomach, loss of appetite, and abdominal pain. It is necessary to take the medicine according to the doctor's orders and know some contraindications of medication.

1. To treat weak spleen and stomach, loss of appetite, vomiting, fullness and stomach pain: 8 liang of cardamom meat, a piece of ginger (cut into slices with the skin), 4 liang of licorice (crushed). Mix the above three ingredients evenly into a silver container, add water to cover the medicine by about three fingers, simmer over low heat until the water is gone, take out, roast until dry, and grind into powder. Take one coin each time, with boiling water. It is also delicious to boil it in summer and drink it as a cold soup. (Boji Fang Cardamom Soup)

2. To treat vomiting, inability to eat, and gas in the abdomen: seven pieces of cardamom seeds (crushed), five liang of ginger, one liang of ginseng, and one liang of licorice (roasted). Divide into two doses and take warm, with the doses about five or six miles apart like a person walking. Avoid seaweed and cabbage. (Cardamom Decoction from Guangji Prescription)

3. Treat cold phlegm, vomiting and chest discomfort: cardamom (peeled), pinellia (washed with hot water to remove the slippery part, cut and roasted), half a liang each, old tangerine peel (soaked in hot water to remove the white part, roasted), three fen. Coarsely pound and sieve the above three ingredients. Take three spoonfuls of it each time, add a cup of water and five slices of ginger, boil until seven parts are left, remove the residue and warm the eyes, at any time. (Cardamom Soup from Shengji Zonglu)

4. Treat cold appetite, loss of taste in food, and diarrhea. It can also treat frequent diarrhea after drinking, such as dysentery, discomfort, and loss of appetite: half a liang of cardamom (wrap each with flour and simmer until the flour turns brown, then remove the flour), one liang of licorice (roast), one liang of cinnamon (peeled), one liang of tangerine peel (peel off the white part), and one liang of ginger. Grind the above five ingredients into fine powder. Take one and a half coins each time, and add one coin of old rice powder, one cup of water, and two dates. Boil them together for seven minutes, drink it while warm, and boil the residue again. (Cao Dou Kou [1] powder from Bo Ji Fang)

5. To treat diarrhea in children caused by internal cold: peel off the skin of a cardamom, put a piece of frankincense inside, wrap it with white flour, and simmer until cooked. Remove the flour and cardamom skin and discard them; grind the above into fine powder and make it into pills as big as sesame seeds with millet drink. Take five to seven pills each time, with rice water, at any time. (Cardwort Pills from the Historical Prescriptions)

6. To treat cholera, restlessness, thirst, vomiting, diarrhea and inability to eat: 1 fen of cardamom (peeled), 1 liang of coptis root (without beard). Coarsely pound and sieve the above two ingredients. For each swelling, take three spoonfuls, one cup of water, fifty black beans, three slices of ginger, boil until seven parts are left, remove the residue and drink warm, three times a day. (Cao Dou Tang Soup from Sheng Ji Zong Lu)

7. To treat chronic malaria and mountain miasma that has not been cured for many years, and to treat spleen cold: 2 each of cardamom seeds and nutmeg (wrapped in flour and simmered, one raw and one cooked), 2-inch square Magnolia officinalis (half processed with ginger, half used raw), licorice root as big as a middle finger (half raw, half roasted), 2 pieces of ginger as big as jujube (one piece wrapped in wet paper and simmered, one piece used raw). Divide the above into two large doses. Boil eight he of the decoction with one liter of water at dawn before the onset of the disease. Let it sit until the next morning, then take it while warm. Keep the residue and boil it twice more. (Cao Dou Kou San from Ji Feng Pu Ji Fang)

8. Sweeten the mouth and eliminate bad smell: Grind cardamom and asarum into powder and put it in the mouth. (Behind the Elbow)