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Olive
Simplified Chinese: 橄榄 Pinyin: gǎn lǎn
Olive is common in southern China especially in Fujian Province. It is said that an olive tree needs seven years to start producing fruit and it won’t have much until 25 years later.
There is a legend about a TCM doctor treating a young man’s obesity, laziness and poverty with olives.
The doctor told the man to plant olive seeds in his garden. He needed to care of the olives until they produced fruit before visiting the doctor again. The young man followed the doctor’s advice and became diligent and strong through his effort, yet still poor. When he went back, the doctor said, “You are now no longer fat or lazy, and I will make you no longer poor from tomorrow on.”
As more people visited the young man to buy olives, he became richer. The truth was that the doctor needed olives for his prescriptions, yet there were hardly any olives planted nearby. So he cured the young man’s “ailments” and others’ as well.
Olive, rich in vitamin C and calcium, is a “neutral” herb that travels through the spleen, stomach and lung meridians. It can help dispel pathogenic heat, relieve sore throat, dissolve phlegm and relieve thirstiness. It is also listed as a herb that neutralizes toxins from fish and crab with symptoms like indigestion, vomiting and diarrhea. Prescriptions & Usage:
“Qinglong Baihu Tang” (Green Dragon and White Tiger Soup)
• Chop 200g turnips into slices. Chop each of 12 olives into two. Cook the turnip and olives in water in an earthen pot.
• Bring it to a quick boil and turn to gentle heat, simmering 20 minutes. Drink as tea.
Benefits: Helps dispel pathogenic heat, and relieve sore throat.
Olive and “li gen” (reed rhizome) soup
• Chop four olives and 30g reed rhizome.
• Combine pieces and water in an earthen pot.
• Bring it to quick boil and turn to gentle heat, simmering 20 minutes. Drink as tea.
Benefits: Helps relieve chronic pharyngitis.
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