Sweet almond

Dry, hacking, unproductive cough with a raw, tight feeling in the throat, calling for a rich, oily demulcent rather than a stimulating expectorant

Scalding, irritated urination where a bland mucilaginous drink is wanted to coat and calm the urinary tract

Overview. Sweet almond is the kernel of a small deciduous tree native to Persia, Syria, and North Africa, long cultivated across the Mediterranean and now worldwide for its edible seed. The kernel and its expressed fixed oil, not the leaf or bark, are the parts used medicinally.

Clinical Notes. The classic use of sweet almond in Western herbal practice is as an emulsion, essentially an almond milk thickened with gum arabic and sweetened lightly, given by the spoonful for a dry, tickling cough or a raw, irritated throat.

Properties and Uses. The cotyledons of the almond drupe are edible, and a fine table luxury. When deprived of their reddish-brown envelope, they are said to be blanched; and when beaten up in a mortar with a moderate quantity of water, they form an emulsion of elegant flavor and superior demulcent properties.

Description. Natural Order, Rosaceae. A tree of fifteen to twenty feet high; native of Persia, Syria, and Northern Africa; much cultivated in Spain and Southern France; capable of cultivation in the Gulf States and Mexico. Flowers large, pale red varying to white, in pairs, nearly sessile upon the branches, appearing before the leaves; calyx five-parted, reddish; petals five; stamens twenty or more, spreading. Leaves elliptical, pointed, three inches long, alternate, short- petioled, minutely serrate, bright green. Fruit a drupe, as in the peach, but the sarcocarp (fleshy portion) becoming thin, tough, and dry; the ripe pit constituting the well-known almond nuts of commerce.