Nutmeg

Primarily produced in Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, cultivated in the Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan.

Oval or elliptical shape, 2~3cm long, 1.5~2.5cm diameter. Externally grayish-brown or grayish-yellow, sometimes externally covered in white powder (lime powder). Whole body has pale longitudinal grooves and irregular grooves. Hilum is located in the wide end; pale round and raised, chalaza is dark and indented. Raphe is longitudinal groove connecting the two ends. Firm texture, fractured surface has a brownish-yellow alternating pattern, wide end has dry wrinkled embryo, oily. Potent aromatic odor, acrid taste.

Superior medicinal material is large, externally purplish-brown lustrous, with full and white kernel.

Acrid, bitter, warm

Warms the middle, astringes intestines, moves qi, resolves food. Apply to diarrhea of deficiency type, cold dysentery, gastric and abdominal swelling pain, poor appetite and vomiting, indigestion.

‘Bing lang lines’: Also called areca-markings, this refers to a pattern of alternating deep and light colors on the surface or fractured surface of medicinal materials. It appears similar to the pattern seen on the fractured surface of bing lang(areca nut), and is also called a ‘marbled pattern(da li shi hua wen)’.