【Nature and flavor and meridians】Warm in nature, bitter in taste; slightly toxic. Enters the lung and large intestine meridians.
 [Effects] Reduces qi, eliminates phlegm, relieves cough, relieves asthma, and moistens the intestines and promotes bowel movements.
 [Indications] Cough caused by exogenous factors, wheezing, throat congestion, dry intestines and constipation.
 【Contraindications】1. Avoid taking too much internally to avoid poisoning. 2. Avoid taking if you have yin deficiency cough or loose stools.
 【Medical records】
 "Ben Jing": "It is used to treat cough, upper breath, thundering, throat paralysis, lower breath, postpartum milk, gold sores, cold heart and running pig."
 "Compendium of Materia Medica Annotations": "It can detoxify tin and hufen."
 "Bie Lu": "It is used to treat epilepsy, irritability and heat in the lower part of the heart, the coming and going of wind qi, occasional headaches, relieve muscle pain, relieve heart urgency, and kill dog poison."
 "Medicinal Properties": "It can treat abdominal obstruction, induce sweating, and treat febrile diseases. It can treat acute fullness and pain under the heart, relieve heart and stomach discomfort, treat lung qi cough, and shortness of breath. Add asparagus cochinchinensis to decoct to moisten the heart and lungs. It can be made into soup with yogurt to moisten the voice and breath. If left overnight, it will cause coldness."
 Cui Yuxi's "Food Classic": "It can cure wind retention and speech inability."
 "Medical Origin": "To remove dryness in the lungs and treat wind dryness, one must focus on the chest and diaphragm. "Main Treatment Secrets" says that it can moisten the lungs, help digestion, and lift stagnant qi."
 "Southern Yunnan Materia Medica": "It can relieve cough, eliminate phlegm, moisten the lungs, moisten the intestines and stomach, eliminate flour accumulation, relieve gas, and treat malnutrition and worms."
 "Compendium of Materia Medica": "It can kill insects, treat sores and scabies, reduce swelling, and remove wind and blisters on the face and head."
 【Predecessors release medicine】
 Li Gao: Apricot kernels relieve wheezing and treat qi. Peach kernels treat madness and treat blood. Peach and apricot kernels both treat constipation, and should be divided according to qi and blood. It is difficult to defecate during the day, which is to promote yang qi; it is difficult to defecate at night, which is to promote yin blood. Therefore, for weak people with dry stools and constipation, if the pulse is floating in qi, use apricot kernels and tangerine peel; if the pulse is deep in blood, use peach kernels and tangerine peel; the reason why tangerine peel is used is that the hand yangming and hand taiyin are the exterior and interior. The upper cardia gate is responsible for communication, and the lower gate of the soul gate is responsible for contraction. Therefore, Wang said that the lungs and large intestine are passages.
 "Compendium of Materia Medica": Apricot kernel can disperse and descend, so it can relieve muscle pain, disperse wind, descend qi, moisten dryness, and eliminate accumulation. It is used in medicines for treating injuries. It is used to treat sores and kill insects, using its toxicity. In medicines for treating wind-cold lung diseases, some are used with the skin and tip, taking its dispersing effect.
 "Changsha Yaojie": The lungs are responsible for storing qi, which descends to the chest and diaphragm and flows through the meridians. If the qi is reversed, the chest and diaphragm will be blocked and wheezing and coughing will occur. The disease is stored but cannot descend, so it is blocked, and the meridians cannot flow, so it is swollen and painful. Apricot kernel is open and unblocked, breaking up obstructions and descending reverse. It is good at relieving numbness and stopping wheezing, reducing swelling and moistening dryness, and regulating qi depression. There is no other way to change this. Its main treatments include treating cough and reverse, regulating aphonia, stopping hemoptysis, stopping metrorrhagia, killing parasites, removing thorns, opening the ears, removing eye cataracts, flattening pterygium, stopping food stasis, moistening the large intestine, and promoting urination. All these effects are due to its ability to reduce turbidity and eliminate depression.
 "Ben Cao Qiu Zhen" says: Almonds can dispel wind and cold, and have the power to dispel qi and remove asthma. The pungent taste can dispel evil, the bitter taste can dispel qi, the moist taste can relieve constipation, and the warm taste can relieve stagnation and remove phlegm. Almonds have all the flavors, so they can treat all cases of wind and cold in the lung meridian, such as asthma, cough, chest fullness, constipation, irritability and headache, as well as poison, sores, dog poison, face poison, tin poison, and wounds. Dong Yuan said that almonds and aster are both lung-clearing, depression-removing and urinary tract-opening, but one is mainly for the blood of the lung meridian, and the other is mainly for the qi of the lung meridian; almonds and peach kernels are both for treating constipation, but one is for treating the pulse of floating asthma and constipation, which can be seen during the day; the other is for treating the pulse of sinking and frantic constipation, which can be seen at night. Feng Chuzhan said that almonds and trichosanthes are both for removing phlegm, but one is for dispersing from the pores to remove, so it is most taboo for those with superficial deficiency; the other is for clearing from the stomach and intestines to remove, so it is best avoided for those with internal deficiency. Although the medicines look the same, they are actually different and must be carefully examined. However, when using almonds to treat constipation, you must use tangerine peel as a supplement, so that the qi can be unblocked.
 "Yao Zheng": Apricot kernel is mainly used to treat water retention in the chest, so it can treat wheezing and coughing, and can also treat shortness of breath, chest congestion, heart pain, and body edema.
 "Ben Jing Shu Zheng": Ma Huang Tang, Da Qing Long Tang, Ma Huang, Xing Ren, Gan Cao and Shi Gao Tang, Ma Huang Jia Shu Tang, Ma Huang, Xing Ren, Coix and Gan Cao Tang, Hou Po Ma Huang Tang and Wen Clam Tang, all use ephedra and almond together. Ephedra is mainly used to open and disperse, and its power is all in the pores. If it is not for the almond to stretch the blood vessels and Qi, its action will be slow and hurt. It can be said that ephedra is to almond as cinnamon twig is to peony and jellyfish is to shrimp.
 "Ben Cao Bian Du" says: All kernels have descending properties, so (almonds) are specialized in descending qi. When qi descends, phlegm disappears and coughs stop. It can moisten the large intestine, so it can be used for people with large intestine qi stagnation. The nature of almonds seems to have no pungent taste, and it seems to have only the function of moistening and descending, but no dispersing and erecting power. However, when wind and cold are restrained outside and lung qi is blocked, this bitter descending product must be used to make qi smooth and the surface can be relieved. Therefore, Ma Huang Tang is used for this purpose. Peach kernel and almond have similar properties. One enters the blood of the liver meridian, and the other enters the qi of the lung meridian. As for detoxification and insecticide, both can be used, depending on the mind of the user.