3 Recipes for Clear Skin

Eating Chinese pearl barley frequently can strengthen the spleen and remove dampness, and it can also make skin more beautiful. Shutterstock
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Chinese Pearl Barley is a common grain and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) herbal, which is called Job’s Tear Seed in TCM. While Chinese pearl barley water is a common drink.

Xiao Shanwen, director of the Taipei Zhenguan Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, introduced three recipes of cooking Chinese pearl barley water, which can remove edema, get rid of acne and can whiten the skin.

Some of these herbs may sound unfamiliar, but many are available in health food stores, Asian grocery stores, or they can be found at shops we trust here:

1. Chinese Pearl Barley Water

Method: Wash and soak barley until soft, put it in the water to boil, and then simmer for 20 minutes on low heat.
Efficacy: Promote urination and remove dampness, eliminate edema, whiten skin, eliminate fatigue. Chinese pearl barley is mild and slightly cold. Do not drink too much if you have a cold physique, just drink 1-2 times a week. It is not suitable for pregnant women and women having periods.

2. Anti-acne & Anti-granulation Barley Water

Method: 300cc (0.63 pint) Chinese pearl barley water, add 10g honeysuckle, 10g golden-bell, boil for 10 minutes.
Efficacy: Chinese pearl barley invigorates the spleen and removes dampness, enhances immunity; honeysuckle and golden-bell can clear-heat and detoxify.

Xiao pointed out that small granulomas, also known as “syringomas”, are common in women and are mainly caused by excessive hyperplasia in the eccrine gland tissue.

When people are extremely tired, or having periods, suffer from endocrine dyscrasia or decrease in immunity, the granulomas may gradually increase in size and number.

TCM treatment can clear-heat and detoxify, strengthen the spleen and remove dampness, promotes the rapid recovery of syringoma and prevents recurrence.

Chinese pearl barley. (Su Yufen/The Epoch Times)
Chinese pearl barley. Su Yufen/The Epoch Times

3. Asparagi Radix and Ophiopogonis Radix Whitening Tea

Method: 500cc (1.05 pints) Chinese pearl barley water, add 15g (0.53 ounce) asparagi radix and 15g (0.53 ounce) Ophiopogonis radix, cook for 20 minutes.
Efficacy: Asparagi radix nourishes yin and moistens dryness, clears-fire, and produces body fluid; Ophiopogonis radix nourishes yin and clears-heat.

Lungs govern the skin and the hairs. Asparagi radix and Ophiopogonis radix nourish the lungs and invigorate the skin, the lungs, the yin of the lungs, and achieve the effect of whitening and moisturizing skin.

Tan Wei, TCM practitioner at JS Chinese Health Therapy & Herbs Clinic in Malaysia, also mentioned that regular consumption of Chinese pearl barley can keep human skin youthful and delicate, eliminate acne, pigmentation, and improve skin tone. It can treat desquamation, acne, chapped skin, rough skin, and so on.