林檎 능금 (임금)

Original, read line by line 東醫寶鑑 · Tangaek — Decoctions vol. 2

1. 性溫, 味酸甘, 無毒.

   Its nature is warm, its taste sour and sweet, and it has no toxicity—an easy fruit to enjoy.

2. 止消渴.

   It relieves wasting-thirst syndrome, easing the dry mouth and constant craving for water.

3. 治霍亂肚痛, 消痰止痢.

   It treats abdominal pain from sudden cholera-like upsets, dissolves phlegm, and stops diarrhea.

4. 其樹似柰樹, 實形圓如柰.

   The tree resembles the crabapple tree (柰), and the fruit is round like a crabapple—essentially an old cousin of today’s apple.

5. 六月七月熟, 或謂之來禽, 處處有之.

   It ripens in the sixth and seventh lunar months, is sometimes called 'naegeum' (bird-attracting fruit), and grows everywhere.

6. 味苦澁, 不可多食, 閉百脉, 令人好睡, 發痰, 生瘡癤.

   Its taste is bitter and astringent, so do not overeat: it blocks the meridians, induces drowsiness, stirs up phlegm, and breeds boils.

7. 半熟者味苦澁, 故入藥治病, 爛熟則無味矣. 《本草》

   The half-ripe fruit, being bitter and astringent, is used as medicine, while the fully soft-ripe one loses all flavor, as the Bencao notes.

8. 東行根

   Now on the eastward-growing root—the ancients believed roots reaching toward the rising sun held a special medicinal power.

9. 治蛔蟲及寸白蟲. 《本草》

   It expels roundworms and tapeworms, according to the Bencao—long used as a folk remedy for intestinal parasites.