Nutmeg ròu dòu kòu · 肉豆蔻

Safety. This is one of the materia medica where modern safety reports go well beyond what the tradition recorded: nutmeg contains myristicin, and poisoning with agitation, hallucinations, nausea and a racing heart has been reported after large amounts, including from people who took it deliberately for that effect. Warming and drying, so the tradition itself cautions against it where there is damp-heat diarrhoea or dysentery, and against it where there is heat from Yin depletion. Avoided in pregnancy. Kept away from children as a medicine. Not for self-directed use — a spice on food and a medicinal amount are not the same thing.