Pine Nut, also known as red pine, fruit pine, red fruit pine, and Korean five-leaf pine. Pine nuts are used for moisturizing, nourishing blood, and dispelling wind. It is mainly used for treating dry cough due to lung dryness, constipation, dizziness, bone and joint wind, and wind bi.
[Other Names] Songzi (from "Haiyao Bencao"), Songzi Ren (from "Bencao Yanyi"), Xinluo Songzi (from "Gangmu").
[Source] The seed of the red pine, a plant in the pine family.
[Plant Morphology] Red pine, also known as Hai Song (from "Kaibao Bencao"), Xinluo Song (from "Gangmu"), fruit pine, red fruit pine, and Korean five-leaf pine.
It is an evergreen tall tree that can reach a height of more than 30 meters. The bark is grayish-brown and scales off. The small branches are dark brown, densely covered with rusty brown hairs, and the new branches are brownish-yellow and densely covered with hairs.
The leaves are needle-shaped, with 5 needles in a bundle, thick and hard, triangular in shape, 8-12 centimeters long, dark green on the outer side, with 5-7 rows of white stomatal lines on the inner side, and fine serrations on the edges; leaf sheaths fall off early.
The flowers are unisexual; the male inflorescence is cylindrical, born at the base of the new branches, densely arranged in spike-like clusters, reddish-yellow; the female inflorescence is born at the ends of the main branches or side branches, solitary or in clusters, with long stalks.
The cones are large, ovoid-oblong, 9-14 centimeters long, 6-8 centimeters in diameter, initially green and later turning yellow-brown; the scales are rhomboid or scale-like ovoid, with elongated and recurved tops, with coarse hairs, each bearing 2 seeds.
The seeds are triangular-ovate, wingless, reddish-brown, 12-18 millimeters long, 9-16 millimeters wide. Flowering period is in May. Fruiting period is in October to November.
It grows on moist gentle slopes or well-drained flat land, often mixed with broad-leaved trees. Distributed in the northeast.
[Collection] Harvest after the fruit is ripe, dry it, remove the hard shell, take out the seeds, and store them in a dry place.
Two alkaloids are isolated from the leaves: 4-α-pilocarpine and pinoresinol.
[Usage and Dosage] Oral administration: decoct in water, 1.5-3 qian (4.5-9 grams); or use in ointment or pills.
[Precautions] "Do not use for those with loose stools and oily discharge; also prohibited for those with damp phlegm." (from "Bencao Congxin")
[Medicinal Recipes with Pine Nuts]
① For treating wind-cold arthralgia, deficiency and weakness with lack of energy, exhaustion of the five viscera, cough with phlegm, bone steaming with night sweats, confusion of the mind, and loss of appetite, seminal emission and slippery discharge: 8 liang of pine nuts, 1 jin of Ophiopogon japonicus (without removing the core), 8 liang each of Schisandra chinensis and goji berries, decoct into an ointment, and add a little honey to collect. Take more than ten teaspoons of the white decoction in the morning and evening. (Su Shi)
② For treating dry cough due to lung dryness: 1 liang of pine nuts, 2 liang of walnut kernels. Grind into an ointment, mix with half liang of ripe honey, and take 2 qian (6 grams) after meals with boiling water. (from "Xuangan Chuanshi Fang", Fengsui Tang)
③ For treating constipation in the elderly: equal parts of pine nut kernel, cypress seed kernel, and hemp seed kernel, grind together, dissolve in white wax, and make pills the size of a tung seed. Take thirty to forty pills with a little Huangdan Decoction before meals. (from "Bencao Yanyi")
④ For moisturizing the heart and lungs, and harmonizing the large intestine: cook pine nuts with rice to make porridge. (from "Shicai Sanshu", Pine Nut Porridge)
[Precautions] Beware of consuming for those with loose stools and diarrhea.
