Carambola

Introduction

Carambola (scientific name: Averrhoa carambola L.), also known as carambola, star fruit, yangtao, three-lianzi, etc., belongs to the phylum Angiosperm, genus Averrhoa. Carambola is a fruit produced in tropical and subtropical areas with very high nutritional value.

The carambola is an evergreen small tree that can reach 12 meters in height. The pinnate compound leaves are alternate. Because the leaves react to heat and light, they slowly close when touched by external forces. The leaflets are 5-13, ovate to elliptical, with a gradually pointed tip, a rounded base, and one side tilted. The flowers are small, bisexual, and the branches and buds are dark red; the back of the petals is light purple-red, the edges are lighter, sometimes pink or white, and the inflorescence is in axillary panicles; the flowering period is from late spring to autumn. The berries are ovate to oblong, light green or waxy yellow, sometimes dark red. The fruit is in the shape of a five-pointed star.

Nutritional value of carambola

Star fruit has high medicinal value, especially the fresh fruit, which is rich in sugar, including sucrose, fructose, glucose, malic acid, citric acid, oxalic acid, various vitamins, trace fat and protein, etc. It helps digestion, nourishes and protects the human body. The fiber and acid contained in it can dissolve the internal heat, clear dryness, moisten the intestines and promote bowel movements. It is the most suitable heat-clearing fruit for people with heat in the lungs and stomach. In addition, star fruit is also an expert in treating sore throat. The leaves, flowers and roots of star fruit also have good medicinal effects: its leaves are good for urination; its flowers can cure cold and heat; its roots can cure joint pain. In addition to being beneficial to human health, star fruit also has a good effect on women's beauty. Star fruit contains a lot of fruit acid, which can inhibit the precipitation of melanin, effectively remove or lighten dark spots, and has a moisturizing effect, which can make the skin moisturized and shiny, and it also has a significant effect on improving dry or oily skin tissue. Star fruit can reduce the body's absorption of fat, reduce blood lipids and cholesterol, and prevent cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and arteriosclerosis. It can also protect the liver and lower blood sugar. Star fruit is rich in sugars, vitamin C and organic acids, and has abundant juice, which can quickly replenish the body's water, promote body fluids and quench thirst, and excrete heat or alcohol poisoning from the body with urine, eliminating fatigue. Star fruit juice contains a large amount of oxalic acid, citric acid, malic acid, etc., which can increase the acidity of gastric juice and promote food digestion. Star fruit contains a large amount of volatile components, carotene compounds, sugars, organic acids and vitamins B and C, etc., which can eliminate pharyngitis and oral ulcers, and prevent and treat toothache caused by wind and fire. Although star fruit has a great effect, patients with kidney disease should eat less star fruit.

The efficacy and function of carambola

Star fruit is the fruit of the plant Averrhoa carambola of the Oxalidaceae family. Star fruit is also called carambola, five-leaved fruit, foreign peach, and three-lian fruit. Star fruit has the effects of clearing away heat and promoting body fluid, promoting diuresis and detoxification, promoting diuresis and relieving stranguria, promoting body fluid and relieving restlessness, sobering up, and aiding digestion. Star fruit has the effect of treating wind-heat cough, thirst, irritability, sore throat, etc. Star fruit is cold in nature. People with weak spleen and stomach, poor appetite and diarrhea should eat less star fruit.

Medicinal value of carambola

It has the effects of clearing away heat, promoting fluid production, detoxifying, lowering qi and harmonizing the middle, promoting diuresis and relieving stranguria, promoting fluid production and relieving restlessness, sobering up, and aiding digestion. It can treat wind-heat cough, thirst and irritability, sore throat, stomatitis, toothache, liver disease, urinary difficulty, calculus, scurvy, food and alcohol poisoning.

1. Star fruit for treating malaria: Take five to eight star fruits, mash them and squeeze out the juice. Take one cup each time, twice a day. (Fujian Folk Herbs)

2. Starfruit for stranguria: 3 to 5 starfruits, boiled with honey and taken as a decoction. (Quanzhou Materia Medica)

3. Carambola treats wind-heat cough: Eat fresh carambola. (Quanzhou Materia Medica)

4. Carambola, native to Lingnan and Fujian. It is as big as a fist. Its color is greenish yellow and moist green, and its shape is very strange, like a wheelbarrow in the field. It has five ridges on it, like a sword ridge. Its skin and flesh are crisp and soft. Its taste is sour at first and sweet in the end. Its core is like a pear. It ripens in May, and one tree can produce several stones. It ripens again in October. It is pickled in honey, sweet and delicious. People also dry it in the sun and eat it as a fruit. There is also Sanlianzi, which is probably of this kind. "Compendium of Materia Medica"

5. Starfruit, as big as papaya, yellow, with soft and crispy skin and flesh, very sour taste, with five ridges on top, as if carved out. Southerners call ridges "lian", hence the name. Pickled in honey, it tastes sweet and sour. Originated from the South China Sea. "Description of Southern Plants"

6. Star fruit can quench thirst, relieve restlessness, eliminate heat, promote urination, eliminate mouth ulcers in children, and treat snake bites. "Records of Collecting Medicinal Herbs in Lingnan"

7. Carambola is mainly used to treat wind-heat, promote the production of body fluids and quench thirst.

8. Carambola can detoxify alcohol and eliminate stagnation. "Guangxi Chinese Medicine Records"

9. Star fruit can detoxify meat and relieve miasma.

10. Star fruit can relieve stagnation, detoxify, and cool the blood. It can treat mouth ulcers and toothache. "Luchuan Materia Medica"

11. Dried or soaked in white honey, it can cure acclimatization and malaria.

Side effects and contraindications of carambola

Star fruit is cold in nature. People with weak spleen and stomach, poor appetite and diarrhea should eat less star fruit.

How to eat carambola

Fresh carambola juice

Efficacy: This juice has the effects of clearing away heat and wind, relieving pain and reducing swelling. It is suitable for patients with red, swollen and painful joints.

Ingredients: 3 fresh carambolas.

practice:

1. Wash with clean water, cut into dices with a fruit knife, and mash and squeeze out the juice;

2. Pour the juice into a cup, add 100 ml of warm water and mix well. Take it twice a day.

Starfruit and Gorgon Rice Porridge

Efficacy: This porridge has the effect of strengthening the spleen and stomach, and can be used as the staple food for patients who have just recovered from a serious illness. Healthy people can eat it to increase appetite and strengthen their bodies.

Ingredients: 100 grams each of carambola and late rice, 50 grams of water chestnuts, and 50 grams of white sugar.

practice:

1. Wash the carambolas, cut them into dices, and rinse the rice with clean water;

2. Put the diced carambola, water chestnuts and late rice into a large clay pot, add 750 ml of water, simmer over low heat for 60 minutes, then add sugar.

Candied Carambola

Efficacy: This peach has the effect of relieving heat and promoting diuresis, and is suitable for diarrhea caused by heatstroke and dampness.

Ingredients: 100 grams of fresh carambola, 50 grams of white sugar.

practice:

1. Wash the carambolas with clean water, cut them with a fruit knife and place them on a plate;

2. Sprinkle white sugar evenly on the fresh fruit, marinate for 30 minutes, and then chew slowly.

Pickled Carambola

Efficacy: This peach has the effect of helping food and soothing the stomach, and can be used to treat indigestion, chest tightness, abdominal distension and other symptoms.

Ingredients: 1 fresh carambola, 50 ml red vinegar.

practice:

1. Wash the carambola with clean water and cut it in half with a fruit knife;

2. Put the fresh fruit in a cup, add red vinegar and soak for 10 minutes, then take out and chew slowly.

Fresh carambola tea

Efficacy: Produces fluid to quench thirst, dispels wind and clears heat.

Ingredients: 1 fresh carambola, 3g mulberry leaves, 3g green tea.

Usage: Make tea with the decoction of carambola and mulberry leaves, and add appropriate amount of rock sugar.

Carambola stewed with white honey

Efficacy: Clears heat and relieves stranguria, treats damp-heat accumulation, urethritis, and urinary obstruction during pregnancy.

Ingredients: 500 grams of carambola, 100 grams of cotton sugar, 25 grams of honey, and a little osmanthus sauce.

practice:

1. Split the carambola, cook it in a pot, and remove the skin and core.

Use a knife to make two diagonal cuts to cut into 3 pieces. Put them into a bowl one by one, add sugar, honey and osmanthus sauce, cover with a lid, steam in a steamer over high heat for about 10 minutes, take out and turn upside down on the lid plate.

Starfruit Bird's Nest

Efficacy: Clears away heat and detoxifies, promotes the production of body fluids and quenches thirst, lowers blood lipids and cholesterol.

Ingredients: bird’s nest, carambola, rock sugar.

practice:

1. Choose a yellow carambola and cut it into 3-5 slices of even thickness.

2. Add water and sugar to the pot. After the water boils, put in the carambola and blanch it.

3. Pour the star fruit and sugar water into a golden bowl, and put the bird's nest into a separate bowl.

Grape Carambola Juice

Efficacy: It can quench thirst and promote diuresis.

Ingredients: (480 ml finished product, 2 cups) 200 grams of grapes, 1 star fruit, 300 ml of ice water, a little salt, honey and ice cubes as needed

practice:

1. Wash the grapes and carambolas with water, and cut the carambolas into pieces for later use.

2. Place the above ingredients in a blender, add 300 ml of cold boiled water, then add appropriate amount of honey and a little salt and mix into juice.

3. Filter the juice through a strainer.

4. Put ice cubes in the cup and add juice.

Carambola Custard

Efficacy: Milk is rich in protein, vitamins, calcium, potassium, magnesium and other minerals, which can prevent dry and dull skin, make the skin white and shiny; it can also supplement calcium; carambola can reduce blood lipids and cholesterol, and prevent cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and arteriosclerosis. Eggs are rich in protein, fat, vitamins, iron, calcium, potassium and other minerals needed by the human body, which are beneficial to the nervous system and body development, can strengthen the brain, improve memory, and promote liver cell regeneration; it has the effects of nourishing the heart and calming the mind, replenishing blood, nourishing yin and moistening dryness.

Ingredients: Milk (250g), Starfruit (100g), Egg (100g), White Sugar (30g)

practice:

1. Remove the hard edges and core of the carambola and cut into small pieces;

2. Crack the eggs into the soup bowl and mix well;

3. Put milk and carambola into a pot and cook over low heat. Turn off the heat, let it cool slightly, add sugar and slowly dissolve it, then stir well.

4. Add the cooked milk to the beaten eggs and mix well. Sieve to remove the foam and unbeaten egg whites. Put it in the steamer and cover with a dish.

5. Steam over low heat until solidified, then take out and let cool before serving.

Carambola Stewed Coccyx

Efficacy: beautify skin, relieve cough and stop phlegm.

Ingredients: 2 grams of dried tangerine peel, 1 fresh carambola, 1 pig tail bone (cut into pieces), 10 cups of water, 1 cup of rice wine, a little salt, 1 teaspoon of rock sugar.

practice:

1. First, scald the coccyx with hot water to remove the blood, then wash it with clean water and set aside.

2. Wash the carambola, trim the corners, remove the head and tail, and cut into star-shaped slices about 0.5 cm thick.

3. Add water to the coccyx and boil over high heat for 20 minutes. Add the tangerine peel and then simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes. Add the carambola slices and rice wine and continue to simmer for about 20 minutes. Finally, add seasonings according to personal preference (salt is optional) and serve.

Starfruit Honey Soup

Efficacy: Treats kidney stones of Qi-stagnation type: low back pain, or lower abdominal pain, fatigue, hematuria, red tip and edges of tongue, thin yellow tongue coating, and tight pulse.

Ingredients: 5 carambolas, appropriate amount of honey.

Method: decoct the whole medicine into a decoction and take it 2-3 times a day.

Ophiopogon japonicus and carambola sweet soup

Efficacy: Nourishes the lungs and yin, eliminates acne, and improves dry throat and mouth in autumn.

Ingredients: 1 carambola, 4 perilla plums, 15g Ophiopogon japonicus, 10g Asparagus cochinchinensis, 1 tablespoon Perilla plum juice, 600ml water, 1 tablespoon rock sugar.

practice:

1. Put all the herbs into a cotton bag. Scrub the skin of the carambola with a small amount of salt and cut off the head and tail.

2. Cut into slices. Then, put all the ingredients into a pot, boil over low heat, add rock sugar and stir until dissolved.

3. Take out the herbs, add the perilla plum juice and mix well. After it cools down, it is ready to eat.

Squid stew with carambola

Efficacy: Nourishes yin and moistens the lungs, clears the heart and relieves irritability, replenishes the kidneys and nourishes the heart, and improves neurasthenia.

Ingredients: 4 liang of squid, 10 pea pods, 1/2 yellow bell pepper, 1 cup of carambola, 2 scallions, 1 clove of garlic, 3 slices of ginger, a little carrot, 1/3 tbsp sesame oil, 1/2 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tbsp starch, 1 tbsp water, 1 tsp salt

practice:

1. Wash and cut the ingredients separately for later use;

2. Add starch and water and stir evenly;

3. Rinse the herbs with clean water, add 3 cups of water and boil for 20 minutes, then take 1 cup of soup;

4. Preheat the pan, add a little oil, add onion, garlic and ginger and sauté until fragrant;

5. Then add squid, carambola and carrot and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes;

6. Add the soup, seasoning, pea pods and yellow bell pepper slices and stir-fry;

7. Pour in starch water to thicken, stir-fry for a while.