Introduction: Did you know that monk fruit has another name, "Immortal Fruit"? The name is not for nothing. Monk fruit tea has a light, sweet taste, soothes the throat and quenches thirst, and has the effect of relieving coughs and moistening the lungs!
The Effects of Monk Fruit
The monk fruit ripens in autumn. I wonder if you've had this experience: a fully ripe monk fruit is sweet and delicious, but when the fruit is not fully ripe, if it is picked, dried, and then steeped in water, it is not sweet but rather has a bitter taste, and its medicinal effects are also poor.
Monk Fruit Osmanthus Tea
In fact, nature nurtures all things according to its own timing. For example, the sweetness of watermelon, which ripens in summer, can alleviate the effects of summer heat on the body; the abundant moisture in pears, which ripens in autumn, can soothe the damage of autumn dryness to the lungs. A fruit cannot have a sweet and delicious taste before it is fully ripe. Like the pear, the monk fruit also ripens in autumn, and under the tempering of autumn dryness, it develops a certain moistening nature. With its sweet, cool nature and moistening properties, monk fruit is deeply loved by the public, and people in many places use it to make tea. Therefore, the properties and functions of monk fruit can be summarized as: sweet, cool, affecting the Lung and Large Intestine meridians, with the effects of clearing heat and moistening the lungs, soothing the throat and opening the voice, and moistening the intestines to relieve constipation.
1. Lung Heat and Lung Dryness Cough
This is the main use of monk fruit. Monk fruit is sweet and cool in nature, and primarily enters the Lung meridian. It can both clear the lungs to treat coughs caused by lung heat and moisten the lungs to treat coughs caused by lung dryness. Relatively speaking, monk fruit has a more significant and common effect on autumn dryness coughs. Because autumn is the season when the lung governs qi, the pathogenic dryness of autumn most easily damages the lungs, often causing a dry cough with little or no phlegm, which is often difficult to treat. Monk fruit ripens and is harvested in autumn; its sweet and cool nature is good at clearing and moistening lung dryness. It can be used alone or in combination with other herbs like mulberry leaf.
Monk Fruit and Winter Melon Pork Rib Soup
2. Sore Throat, Hoarseness, and Loss of Voice
The function of the throat in producing sound is mainly related to the lungs, as lung yin can moisten the throat. For example, lung heat can lead to a sore and swollen throat, and autumn dryness can damage lung yin, causing the throat to lose nourishment from the body, resulting in hoarseness or even loss of voice. Monk fruit can both clear and moisten the lungs, thereby soothing the throat and opening the voice.
3. Dry Intestine Constipation
There are many causes of constipation, and constipation caused by insufficient intestinal fluid and a dry intestine is very common. Insufficient lung yin can also lead to dry intestine constipation. Monk fruit has a very good therapeutic effect for this: it enters both the Lung and Large Intestine meridians, is sweet, cool, and moistening, and can moisten both the lungs and the intestines, thus it can relieve constipation and is used for dry intestine constipation. However, this also suggests that people who already have loose stools or even diarrhea should use monk fruit with caution.
Monk Fruit Pork Rib Soup