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What's Inside King To Nin Jiom Pei Pa Kao?

I still have a bloody phlegmy cough. Despite eating everything I think is good for curing a cough.

So as a last resort, I turned to a favourite cough remedy - King To Nin Jiom Pei Pa Kao! I had a bottle stashed in my kitchen so I thought, might as well take that and see if my cough can be cured.

The funny thing was, it has expired in 2007.

But what the heck.

It's just cough syrup, right? Won't die anyway. So being highly practical, I took whatever's left of this remedy. (I'm Cantonese. We're a highly practical people. That's probably why we can survive anywhere. I grew up with lots of pragmatic advice from mom and grandma.)

For those of you who don't know what King To Nin Jiom is, it's a thick, gooey, honey-like syrup masquerading as cough syrup. It's a traditional Chinese preparation so it's lovely and sweet, much like honey. It's not like those yucky cherry-flavoured cough syrups doctors give. Not at all. (By the way, I hate those.)

This syrup is so good that children will take to it like they take to all sweet stuff.

Locally in Malaysia, we know it as Ubat Batuk Cap Ibu dan Anak. In my younger days, the TV ad for this syrup was a wayang kulit or shadow play where the son goes in search of a cough remedy for his mom and then finds this King To Nin Jiom. She takes it and hurray, is cured. I can still remember the ad!

Even if you are not coughing, you ought to keep a bottle of this Nin Jiom at home. If you are heaty (had too many late nights, eaten too much curries, sang too much at karaokes hence have a sore throat, or just plain grouchy which in TCM means you have too much 'heat' in the body), a teaspoon of this diluted in a glass of water is just the thing!

I went over to the official Nin Jiom website but it's done in Flash so half the info cannot be seen (and I am using the Google Chrome browser) and I didn't want to download Flash - too lazy lah. I wanted to find out what they use for this miraculous cough medicine.

In the end, I had to go on the Net and search for myself (coz remember I told you their Nin Jiom site sucked and I couldn't see a thing).

Inside this concoction, there's some 15 different herbs. They include:

chuan bei mu
loquat leaf
fourleaf ladybell root
indian bread extract
pomelo peel
platycodon root
pinellia tuber
chinese magnoliane fruit
snakegourd seed
common coltsfoot flower
thinleaf milkwort root
bitter apricot seed
fresh ginger
licorice root
peppermint oil
honey

In my next post, I will let you on the benefits of these ingredients. Even if you don't know much about TCM, you notice that much of the ingredients are generally used to prevent coughs such as bitter apricot seed and licorice root.

Comments

millimilli said…
oh, I love that stuff! They make it in little cough lozenges now.

Did it help? I tend to think of it as more of a lolly. It tastes so good!
Nunya said…
I love your chinese soup receipes, I never learned them from my mom. I was wondering for an ABC American Born Chinese you would help me out by uploading pictures of your concoctions. Thanks! Keep up the great work!
Krista Goon said…
Hi millimilli: I don't know coz I still have a bit of cough now. It really sucks though. I think if I get cold, I start coughing. I don't like the lozenge version though haha. Call me picky. ;-)

Hi neeters: Hey, thanks! I will do so the next time I make my soups!
Unknown said…
Thanks! I would try next time when i got cough!!!
and I found it on this website... maybe the Nin Jiom produces the candies as well!!!
http://ninjiom.50webs.com/
YaYa said…
This ubat batuk is really proven, my family use it hereditary..:)
Krista Goon said…
Hi Flores Hayes: Yes I believe they also produce candies. Lozenges I think.

Hi YaYa: Yes, it can also be used as a cooling tea on hot days. Just stir a tablespoon into water and drink up ;-)

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