Bitter almonds, alias: almond. Latin name: SemenArmeniacaeAmarum, for the Rosaceae plant apricot, summer harvest mature fruit, remove the pulp and nuclear shell, take out the seeds, sun-dried. The main functions are to lower the qi, cough and asthma, laxative. Used for coughing and wheezing, chest fullness and phlegm, blood deficiency and fluid depletion, intestinal dryness and constipation. Mainly produced in Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi. \x0d\\\x0d\\almonds are categorized into sweet almonds and bitter almonds. Almonds produced in the south of China belong to the sweet almonds (also known as southern almonds), the flavor is slightly sweet, delicate, mostly used for food, but also as raw materials added to cakes, cookies and dishes. \x0d\\\\x0d\ sweet almonds are the sweet-tasting dried seeds of some cultivated species of apricot or mountain apricot of the Rosaceae family. Picked when the fruit is ripe, remove the pulp and kernel shell, take the seeds to dry. Mainly produced in Hebei, Beijing, Shandong and other places; in addition, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Xinjiang, Shanxi, Northeast and other places also produced. \x0d\\\x0d\bitter almonds are the fruit of mountain almonds, the particles are heart-shaped, but smaller, about 1 cm in diameter, the skin of the seed kernel is dark yellow, with fine lines on it. Sweet almonds are the fruit of benevolent almonds, the particles are heart-shaped, slightly larger in shape than bitter almonds, the tip is slightly crooked, the skin of the seed kernel is light yellow, the skin is more coarse. Simply put, sweet almonds are selected and bred by humans to specifically eat almonds, so the kernel is particularly well developed and has a sweet and tangy flavor, while bitter almonds are grown by nature, are not specifically designed to eat almonds, and are not designed with human taste in mind. \x0d\ used in medicine is mainly bitter almonds, which contain "bitter amygdalin", also known as "amygdalin". When hydrolyzed, it releases hydrocyanic acid, which is highly toxic and can be fatal when consumed in large quantities. For people with indigestion, even if no poisoning may cause indigestion, because the decomposition of bitter amygdalin produced by benzaldehyde has the effect of inhibiting the activity of digestive enzymes. So the bitter almond is not free to eat, if you use the bitter almond as a traditional Chinese medicine, the dosage must follow the doctor's instructions.