I was coughed for a month recently. I had been drinking Chinese bitter medication soup as well as taking 2 courses of antibiotic treatment, the cough was still remained. My immune system dropped tremendously from insomnia due to coughing at night.
After I tried this traditional food therapy, steamed orange, my cough magically stopped. Hence, I would like to share this funny but workable remedy to you.
1. What you need is an orange. Normally, I use 2 oranges at one go.
2. Cut off the 1/3 top of the orange.
3. Sprinkle a pinch of salt (less than 1/2 teaspoon) on the orange.
4. Place the top back. Steam for 10 mins in medium fire. You may know when it is ready by a strong fragrance of essential aromatic oil.
5. Let them cool down for 15 mins. Lastly, enjoy it!
Yummy! It tastes so delicious! I would have the other one in the evening. From the picture, you can see that the albedo part is shrunk after the steam.
How it work?
In Chinese medicine, certain coughs are not advisable to eat orange. This is because orange is a phlegm stimulator. However, after the orange been steamed, it is suitable to all types of cough. You may wonder," Will the Vit C degraded and no more nutrition value after the heat steam?".
Let's see the anatomy and the nutrients that contained in the orange.
Flavedo
Is the outer most layer, it contains aromatic oil, plant steroids, tripenoids, carotenoids, flavonoids, limonene and enzymes which are good antioxidant agents. When scraped, it can become zest and be use in cooking.
Albedo
Is the white spongy part which is a highly nutritious part. It is rich in bioflavonoids, include hesperidin, rutin, quercetin, diosmetin, diosmin etc. They have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. The tread-like vascular bundles that we always remove before consuming, is rich in peroxidase, an enzyme that break down hydrogen peroxide. Albedo also contain pectin and pectiz enzyme that make the taste bitter. Pectin is a cancer preventing agent.
Pulp
Is the part that we love to eat. It is high in Vit. C, sugar and water.
By understanding the anatomy and nutrition storage in the orange, steamed orange is one of the ways to extracts the bioflavonoids out from the albedo into the pulp with the aid of salt as the extraction agent. Salt is a bitter suppressor too.
I hope my sharing will help you. If you have more information about the steamed orange, I would be glad to hear from you. Happy trying!
Stay naturally beautiful by staying naturally healthy!
Love,
Lai xoxo
