Apricot kernels (kernels) - benefits and harms, reviews about the use

Apricot is a very valuable product that contains many trace elements and vitamins necessary for a person. But few people know that the benefits for the body from taking apricot kernels are also very high, in particular, they are effective in combating various neoplasms, however, the harm that they can do with self-medication is quite large. That is why you need to carefully study the information about their safe use.

The chemical composition and beneficial properties of apricot kernel kernels

The kernel of the apricot kernel is almost half composed of fats, so the calorific value per 100 g of raw product is very large - about 520 kilocalories. The composition is rich in such micro and macro elements (arranged in descending order of content in one bone): potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, sodium and iron.

It also contains important fatty acids for the body: oleic (omega-9), which is involved in the construction of cell membranes, and linoleic (omega-6), which regulates metabolic processes in the body. The dose that does not harm the human body is from 20 to 50 g per day.

Kernels have the following useful properties:

• anthelmintic;
• support of the cardiovascular system due to the large amount of potassium;
• muscle building due to protein, which is 25 g per 100 g of product;
• oil is widely used in cosmetology;
• has antitumor properties due to vitamin B17 in the composition;
• antiviral effect;
• normalization of the hormonal background;
• expectorant properties - are used in the complex treatment of bronchitis, whooping cough, pneumonia.

Contraindications and harm to the body

Apricot kernels confirm the idea of ​​Paracelsus: “Everything is poison, everything is medicine. Both of these are determined by the dose. ” The cyanide in the composition can both destroy cancer cells and harm the body if the dose is exceeded.

Hydrocyanic acid affects the brain and central nervous system, disrupts oxygen metabolism in tissues, which leads to disruption of all systems in the human body. To reduce the consumption of hydrocyanic acid in food, you should eat only sweet varieties of kernels. It is necessary to exclude the product even in minimal doses when:

• liver diseases, especially in the acute phase;
• disorders in the thyroid gland;
• diabetes
• carrying a child.

Methods of eating and using apricot kernels

The use of raw seeds is widespread, but they can be used to make delicious snacks and even medicines.

Raw

In their raw form, kernels are used for making apricot milk, for nut-fruit mixtures, as an additive to cereals and smoothies. Walnut milk makes coughing easier and helps strengthen the body. To prepare, pour a glass of nuts in water for 6 hours, you can at night.In the morning, rinse them and pour in two glasses of clean water and beat in a blender until smooth. Strain the milk through several layers of gauze and store in the refrigerator for no longer than 2-3 days. Cake can be used as an additive to baking or cereals.

Water infusion

In alternative medicine, you can often find recommendations for taking water tincture of apricot seeds:

1. It is used orally for the treatment of the respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract, nervous system, heart and blood vessels.
2. Outwardly used as compresses for skin lesions, diseases of joints and bones.

Prescription for internal use in acute respiratory viral infections:

• Grind 15 g of raw kernels in a coffee grinder or mortar;
• pour crumbs with boiling water (150 ml);
• insist under the lid for 4 hours;
• strain through several layers of gauze;
• Serve divided into 3 doses of 50 ml and drink during the day.

Foot bath for rheumatoid arthritis:

• 0.5 kg of spruce needles and 200 g of coarsely chopped seeds are taken per 3 l of water;
• everything is poured with boiling water or in a saucepan brought to a boil and immediately removed from the fire;
• infused broth for half an hour;
• the course of treatment from a week, the frequency of use up to 2 times a day.

Oil

It refers to base oils and can be used both in pure form and serve as the basis for oil compositions:

1. In cooking, it is used only for aroma and most often it can be found in Italian dishes.
2. It has been widely used in cosmetology due to its moisturizing properties.
3. In the East, healers use oil for hemorrhoids, otitis media and sinus diseases.
4. Healing properties help with skin lesions, especially cracks in the heels and shallow cuts.

   

5. A mixture of oils allows a massage to achieve a therapeutic or care effect: for example, with joint pain or to increase skin tone.
6. For heartburn, rubbing the chest with a mixture of 15 mg of apricot oil with two drops of peppermint and two drops of lemon essential oils helps.
7. If you replace mint and lemon with lavender and sandalwood in the same proportions, then you can use it for joint pain.

There are 884 calories per 100 grams of pure product.

Dried and fried kernels

Fried apricot seeds have proven themselves in cooking as an additive to desserts, to flavor dishes and as an excellent substitute for almonds. On the basis of dried kernels at home, you can prepare a delicious Italian liqueur Amaretto. This drink began its history back in 1525 and tastes like marzipan. Classic amaretto is drunk undiluted, with ice or as an addition to coffee. Dessert flavor combined with chocolate, ice cream or fruit.

The recipe is easy to repeat at home:

1. Peel 50 g almonds. For easy cleaning, the skins can be soaked overnight in cold water or for 3-5 minutes in boiling water.
2. Fry nuts in a dry frying pan until golden brown.
3. In 2 minutes, add two buds of cloves and four peas of allspice to the almonds.
4. 50 g of apricot kernel mix with a pinch of cinnamon.
5. For sugar syrup, pour 350 g of sugar and 50 ml of water into a non-stick pan or in a pan with a thick bottom. Melt over low heat, trying not to mix, but only carefully move the container with syrup. When the syrup becomes golden caramel color add 2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar and 100 ml of water. Stir vigorously, as the syrup will bubble.

   

6. In a clean glass jar, mix nuts and kernels with spices, carefully pour sugar syrup.
7. When the mixture in the jar is at room temperature, add 500 ml of vodka and 3 g of natural instant coffee to it.
8. Close the bottle, mix the contents well.
9. Insist in a dark and cool place.
10. After a day, shake the bottle throughout the entire period.
11. After a month, strain through cheesecloth and pour into prepared bottles.

Apricot jam with kernels

Ingredients:

• whole apricots - 1 kg;
• sugar - 600 g;
• peeled apricot kernels - by the number of halves of fruit.

Cooking:

1. Apricots cut into 4 parts. If very soft, then by 2.
2. In a deep container, pour the fruit slices with sugar and leave overnight without stirring. Cover with gauze.
3. Place the container on medium heat and try not to stir. To prevent sugar from burning, the container can be rotated.
4. After boiling, wait 5 minutes and remove from heat. Set to cool for 5 hours.
5. Repeat the cooking procedure and leave to cool overnight.
6. Peel the seeds and pour them into the jam.
7. Boil jam for 10 minutes and pour hot into prepared sterile jars.
8. If everything was done correctly, then the slices will retain their shape, and the jam will be thick and transparent.

Urbech

Superfood originally from Dagestan is a paste of raw seeds or nuts. Apricot urbech has antiviral and immunosupportive properties, but the product should not be given to children, and an adult should not consume more than 3 teaspoons per day.

Cooking this nutritious paste will not be difficult with a blender. 300 g of raw crude kernels are poured into the bowl and mixed for 7-10 minutes. First there will be dry crumbs, which later will release the oil and grind to a state of a homogeneous paste. Grind should be short pulses, periodically cleaning the paste from the walls and returning it to the bowl.

To make the texture softer and brighter, 40 g butter is melted in a water bath and 40 g liquid honey is added. The mixture is well mixed and poured into a paste. A pinch of salt is added there. Everything is mixed until smooth. The urbec is stored in a tightly closed jar in the refrigerator (the consistency will become thicker).

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Dona Shurak

This is a dish of Uzbek cuisine that can be found in eastern markets. It looks like white from salt deposits, on which small cracks are visible. It is cooked in ash, but in an apartment you can try to cook in the oven.

There are many recipes. Each housewife cooks differently. To prepare the product in the oven, you must follow this algorithm:

• ingredients are calculated individually for the number and size of seeds;
• there should be enough liquid to float in it;
• peel and rinse the remains of the pulp;

  

• dissolve salt in water in a proportion of two to one;
• Pour the kernels into the solution and leave for 4 hours;
• each shell along the side wall is slightly chopped to make a crack;
• return the seeds to the saline and add water so that one part of the salt already accounts for four parts of water;
• simmer for 2 hours;
• drain the water, let the bones drain and decompose them in the oven to dry at low temperatures for half an hour;
• ready-cooled chilled donak have white salt deposits and salt crystals inside.

Rules for taking apricot kernels and the benefits of diseases

Raw kernels can be used in any condition, but the dosage and form of administration are different. And it is worth remembering that self-medication can complicate the course of the disease, because treatment is important to carry out under the supervision of specialists.

Cancer prevention

The effect of apricot seeds on the body in the treatment of cancer has been debated for many years. The anti-cancer effect of vitamin B17 already has evidence. He is attracted to cancer cells and fights with them without damaging healthy ones.

However, in 2010, an official ban was issued on the sale of amygdalin, and in 2004 an American scientist who tried to create a medicine based on it was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Critics of this theory insist that the bones are more harmful, because the splitting of the glycoside amygdalin emits the strongest poison - hydrocyanic acid, which can lead to death.

However, in a minimum dose, this acid is not harmful, and during heat treatment its concentration decreases. It’s enough to eat 5 seeds a day to prevent cancer.

For cough and asthma

The kernels perfectly excrete sputum and help with respiratory diseases. For a healing effect, it is enough to eat one tablespoon of seeds or one or two teaspoons of urbec. Water tincture is also well suited, which should be consumed 3 times a day, 50 ml each.

Cardiovascular Disease Prevention

The high amounts of potassium, as well as calcium in raw seeds, have a beneficial effect on heart function.

To boost immunity

The composition of the nucleoli is capable of exerting an antiviral effect, which helps to resist various infections. To increase immunity, it is recommended to use an aqueous infusion of kernels or brew them like tea.

Anthelmintic effect

The effectiveness of taking raw seeds in the amount of 10 pieces per day for a week in the fight against parasites has been proven. The action is similar to pumpkin seeds.

In cosmetology

Apricot oil is highly valued and is actively used in skincare products, as it does not cause allergies, is perfectly absorbed and distributed throughout the skin. It can be used both in pure form and in compositions with other oils. Often diluted with avocado, almond or jojoba oil in equal proportions.

The product is well suited for dry sensitive skin, nourishes and tones up when symptoms of age-related changes manifest. It is considered a means for the prevention of wrinkles, as it is involved in the synthesis of collagen and elastane. As part of shampoos, it fights against dandruff, helps with dry hair and split ends.

As a nutrient for the scalp:

• warm oil is applied with massage movements to the hair roots;
• left under a shower cap for an hour;
• then washed off with a mild shampoo.

Features of use during pregnancy, breastfeeding and in childhood

Due to the risk of poisoning and the inability to accurately control the amount of toxic substances, stopping the use of nuclei should be at the planning stage of the child. Do not use until the completion of breastfeeding.

Apricot kernel reviews

The great popularity of the product in different areas of phytomedicine and cosmetology is confirmed by the reviews of doctors and readers.

Doctors

Veselova M.V., specialist of Russian herbalism: “The debate over the effects of amygdalin on cancer does not fade. Both one and the other side exaggerate, the truth is somewhere in between. No real evidence of apricot kernel healing has yet been reported.

Official medicine scares poisoning even from small doses of 15-20 seeds. But poisons in small doses protect the body. In herbal medicine for the treatment of cancer, I use more toxic agents.But apricot kernel therapy should be used only in combination with traditional treatment. The optimal dose is calculated individually, in the calculation of 1 bone per 5 kg of weight. "

Halisat Suleymanova, phytotherapist: “In order to achieve the maximum effect from taking the seeds, it is necessary to get them from wild fruits and in ecologically clean areas. With apricot therapy, it is necessary to eat the entire daily intake at a time one hour after waking up. For prevention, it is advisable to limit yourself to 5 cores per day.

Readers

Tatyana: “Apricot oil is always in my cosmetic bag. I have dyed hair, so after washing I put 2-3 drops on wet ends. In summer I use instead of face cream, for this I rub it in my hands with 5-7 drops and apply it with patting movements on my face. For hands, mix 2-3 drops with water and rub until completely absorbed. "

Valeria: “I grind apricot kernels and store them in the kitchen with spices. I use in baking, for homemade ice cream. Cakes and biscuits are very tasty. ”

Apricot kernels occupy a special place in alternative medicine. They are credited with amazing healing properties, and because of the nutty taste, they found a place in cooking. So that a tasty treat does not harm your health, you need to use it in limited quantities and only if the bones are no more than one year old and they are not bitter.