Korean pine

A thin, dry older person with hard pellet stools and a tickly dry cough, who needs nourishing rather than purging

Dry constipation after childbirth or a long illness, where fluids and blood are low and stimulant laxatives would exhaust the patient

Overview. Song zi ren is the shelled seed kernel of Pinus koraiensis, the Korean pine, a tall five-needle pine of the cold forests of northeast China, Korea, the Russian Far East and Japan. The large oily kernels are a valued food across the region and the same kernels are the medicinal part. In Chinese medicine they are a gentle, warming, moistening food-herb: sweet and rich, they lubricate a dry Lung and a dry Large Intestine, and they nourish people who have become thin and dry with age or illness. The kernel is not an official pharmacopoeial drug but has a long record in the materia medica.

Clinical Notes. Reach for song zi ren when the picture is dryness and depletion rather than stagnation or heat: pellet-like stools, dry cough with little sputum, dry skin, an older or postpartum patient. Among the moistening seeds it is the most nourishing and least purging, so it suits long, gentle courses.

Chinese Medicine Profile. Temperature: warm. Taste: sweet. Channels: Lung, Large Intestine, Liver. Actions: Moistens the Lung and eases dry cough; Moistens the intestines and unblocks the bowels; Nourishes fluids and blood in the thin, dry and elderly; Dispels wind and moistens dry skin (traditional).