anise

1. An annual, aromatic Mediterranean herb (Pimpinella anisum) in the parsley family, cultivated for its seedlike fruits and the oil obtained from them and used to flavor foods, liqueurs, and candies.
2. Anise seed.

[Middle English anis, from Old French, from Latin anīsum, from Greek annēson, annīson.]

One of the earlist aromatics mentioned in literature. The plant, Pimpinella anisum (Umbelliferae), is an annual herb about 2 ft (0.6 m) tall and a native of the Mediterranean region. It is cultivated extensively in Europe, Asia Minor, India, and parts of South America. The small fruits are used for flavoring cakes, curries, pastry, and candy. The distilled oil is used in medicine, soaps, perfumery, and cosmetics. See also Apiales; Spice and flavoring.

Liqueur made by infusion of aniseed berries in spirit; may be sweet or dry. French sweet anise liqueur is anisette. Pastis is prepared by distillation of anise and liquorice rather than infusion.

Description

Anise, Pimpinella anisum, is a slow-growing annual herb of the parsley family (Apiaceae, formerly Umbelliferae). It is related to other plants prized for their aromatic fruits, commonly called seeds, such as dill, cumin, caraway, and fennel. It is cultivated chiefly for its licorice-flavored fruits, called aniseed. Although it has a licorice flavor, anise is not related to the European plant whose roots are the source of true licorice. It has been used as a medicinal and fragrant plant since ancient times.

The plant reaches from 1–3 ft (0.3–1 m) in height when cultivated, and has finely divided feather-like bright green leaflets. The name Pimpinella (from the Latin dipinella) refers to the pinnately divided form of the leaves. The plant bears white to yellowish-white flowers in compound umbels (umbrella-like clusters). When ripe, the fruits are 0.125 in (3 mm) long and oval-shaped with grayish-green coloring.

While the entire plant is fragrant and tastes strongly of anise, it is the aniseed fruit that has been highly valued since antiquity. Seed maturation usually occurs one month after pollination, when the oil content in the dried fruit is about 2.5%. Steam distillation of the crushed aniseed yields from 2.5 to 3.5% of a fragrant, syrupy, essential, or volatile, oil, of which anethole, present at about 90%, is the principal aromatic constituent. Other chemical constituents of the fruit are creosol, alpha-pinene, dianethole, and photoanethole.

In addition to its medicinal properties, anise is widely used for flavoring curries, breads, soups, cakes, candies, desserts, nonalcoholic beverages, and liqueurs such as anisette. The essential oil is valuable in perfumes and soaps and has been used in toothpastes, mouthwashes, and skin creams.

Anise is endemic to the Middle East and Mediterranean regions, including Egypt, Greece, Crete, and Turkey. It was cultivated and used by ancient Egyptians, and used in ancient Greece and Rome, when it was cultivated in Tuscany. Its use and cultivation spread to central Europe in the Middle Ages, and today it is cultivated on a commercial scale in warm areas such as southern Europe, Asia, India, North Africa, Mexico, and Central and South America.

General Use

The medicinal properties of anise come from the chemicals that are present in the fruits. The anethole in anise helps to relieve gas and settle an upset stomach. The use of anise to season foods, especially meat and vegetable dishes, in many parts of the world may have originated as a digestive aid. The Romans ate aniseed cake at the end of rich meals to prevent indigestion. The chemicals creosol and alpha-pinene act as expectorants, loosening mucus and making it easier to cough up. The estrogenic action of anise is from the chemicals dianethole and photoanethole, which act in a way similar to estrogen. The anise fruits and the essential oil of anise contain these chemicals and can be used medicinally. Aniseed can also be used to make an herbal tea which can help relieve physical complaints.

As a medicinal plant, anise has been used as an antibacterial, an antimicrobial, an antiseptic, an antispasmodic, a breath freshener, a carminative, a diaphoretic, a digestive aid, a diuretic, an expectorant, a mild estrogenic, a mild muscle relaxant, a parasiticide, a stimulant, and a stomachic.

Anise may be helpful in the following conditions:

• Anemia. Anise promotes digestion, which may help improve anemia due to inefficient absorption of iron.
• Asthma. Essential oil of anise may be inhaled through the nose to help ease breathing and relieve nasal congestion.
• Bad breath. It can be used in mouthwash or tea to sweeten breath.
• Bronchitis. Aniseed may be used as an expectorant and essential oil of anise may be inhaled through the nose to help ease breathing.
• Catarrh. Drinking aniseed tea soothes mucous membranes.
• Cold. Aniseed can be used as an expectorant and drinking aniseed tea soothes the throat.
• Colic. Drinking anise tea or using essential oil can alleviate gas.
• Cough. Can be used as an expectorant, especially for hard, dry coughs where expectoration is difficult.
• Croup. Aniseed can be used to alleviate a persistent cough in a child.
• Emphysema. Essential oil of anise may be inhaled through the nose to help ease breathing and relieve nasal congestion and tea with aniseed will soothe mucous membranes.
• Gas and gas pains. Drinking aniseed tea helps relieve gas, gas pains, and flatulence.
• Menopause. Aniseed tea can help alleviate menopausal symptoms.
• Morning sickness. Tea made from anise can help alleviate morning sickness during pregnancy.
• Nursing. Aniseed tea can help a nursing mother's milk come in.
• Sore throat. Drinking aniseed tea alleviates pain of sore throat.

Preparations

Aniseeds. May be added to foods when cooking to flavor and aid digestion, or may be taken whole in doses of 1-3 tsp of dried anise seeds per day.

Tea. One tsp of crushed aniseeds can be steeped in a cup of hot water, then combined with fennel and caraway to help relieve gas and gas pains. To help relieve a cough, coltsfoot, marsh mallow, hyssop, and licorice can be added to the tea. Infants should only receive 1 tsp of boiled, prepared tea.

Essential oil. Preparations of essential oil of anise can be used for inhalation. The essential oil may be taken orally at a dose of 0.01 oz (0.3 g) per day. In addition, the liqueur anisette, which contains anise essential oil, may be administered in hot water to help relieve problems in the bronchial tubes, such as bronchitis and spasmodic asthma. One to three drops of essential oil administered on sugar may help relieve colic.

Precautions

Persons allergic to anise or anethole, its main ingredient, should avoid using aniseed or its essential oil. It is also possible to develop an allergic sensitivity to anise. Care should be taken to monitor the quantity of aniseed oil given to infants. A 2002 report noted an infant brought to the emergency department with seizures as a result of multiple doses of aniseed oil tea.

Side Effects

Although anise is generally considered safe, the side effects of its estrogenic property have not been fully studied. Anise oil may induce nausea, vomiting, seizures, and pulmonary edema if it is ingested in sufficient quantities. Also, contact of the skin with the concentrated oil can cause irritation.

It is important to note that Japanese Star Anise is not the same herb—it is poisonous.

Interactions

No interactions have been reported.

Resources

Books

Foster, Gertrude B. and Rosemary F. Louden. Park's Success with Herbs. Greenwood, S. C.: G. W. Park Seed Co., 1980.

Grieve, M. A Modern Herbal: The Medicinal, Culinary, Cosmetic and Economic Properties, Cultivation and Folk-lore of Herbs, Grasses, Fungi, Shrubs, & Trees with All Their Modern Scientific Uses. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1931.

Reader's Digest Editors. Magic and Medicine of Plants. Pleasantville, N.Y.: Reader's Digest Association, 1986.

Simon, James E., Alena F. Chadwick and Lyle E. Craker. Herbs: An Indexed Bibliography, 1971-1980: The Scientific Literature on Selected Herbs, and Aromatic and Medicinal Plants of the Temperate Zone. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1984.

Periodicals

Tuckler, V., et al. "Seizure in an Infant from Aniseed Oil Toxicity." Clinical Toxicology (August 2002): 689.

Other

Herb Society of America. http://www.herbsociety.org/anise.htm/ (July 12, 2000).

"Herbs." Department of Horticulture, Pennsylvania State University. http://garden.cas.psu.edu/vegcrops/herbs/Pimpinellaanisum.html/ (July 12, 2000).

One Planet. http://www.oneplanetnatural.com/anise.htm/ (July 12, 2000).

"Pimpinella anisum." http://webmd.lycos.com/content/article/1677.57580/ (July 12, 2000).

[Article by: Melissa C. Mcdade; Teresa G. Odle]

For more information on anise, visit Britannica.com.

Dried seeds of the plant Pimpinella anisum of the family Umbelliferae. Anise oil is extracted and used as a flavoring, as a carminative and in broiler feeding as an appetizer. Has an attraction for animals and sometimes used as a decoy in traps. See also aniseed.

Anise has a distinctive smell of licorice, rich and sweet. Anise oil is used in the treatment of bronchitis, colds, coughs, flatulence, flu, muscle aches, and rheumatism

Safety Precautions: Use caution for those with hypersensitive skin or with skin problems. Avoid in endometriosis and estrogen-dependent cancers. Is narcotic, and slows circulation in large doses.

This article is about the Pimpinella species (not to be confused with star anise)

and also, not to be confused with Japanese star anise

Anise
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae (unranked): Angiosperms (unranked): Eudicots (unranked): Asterids Order: Apiales Family: Apiaceae Genus: Pimpinella Species: P. anisum
Binomial name
Pimpinella anisum L.

Anise (Pimpinella anisum, also anís (stressed on the second syllable) and aniseed) is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to the eastern Mediterranean region and southwest Asia known for its flavor that resembles liquorice, fennel, and tarragon.

Contents 1 Biology 2 Cultivation 3 Production 4 Uses 4.1 Culinary 4.2 Liquor 4.3 Medicinal 4.4 Miscellaneous 4.5 In Other Languages 5 Notes 6 External links

Biology

Anise plant

Anise is an herbaceous annual plant growing to 3 ft (0.91 m) tall. The leaves at the base of the plant are simple, 0.5–2 in (1.3–5.1 cm) long and shallowly lobed, while leaves higher on the stems are feathery pinnate, divided into numerous leaves. The flowers are white, approximately 3 mm diameter, produced in dense umbels. The fruit is an oblong dry schizocarp, 3 - 5 mm long. It is these seedpods that are referred to as "aniseed".^[1]

Anise is used as food by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species (butterflies and moths), including the lime-speck pug and wormwood pug.

Cultivation

Best growth is in light, fertile, well drained soil. Start plants from seeds as soon as the ground warms up in spring. Because plants have a taproot they do not transplant well after established, so start them where they are to grow, or transplant while seedlings are still small.^[2]

Production

Top Ten Anise, Badian, Fennel & Corian Producers — 11 June 2008
Country	Production (Tonnes)	Footnote
Syria	115000	F
India	110000	F
Mexico	52000	F
People's Republic of China	38000	F
Iran	30000	F
Bulgaria	28100	F
Morocco	23000	F
Egypt	22000	F
Turkey	19641
Tunisia	9800	F
World	496438	A
No symbol = official figure, P = official figure, F = FAO estimate, * = Unofficial/Semi-official/mirror data, C = Calculated figure A = Aggregate(may include official, semi-official or estimates); Source: Food And Agricultural Organization of United Nations: Economic And Social Department: The Statistical Devision

The essential oil of anise formerly was produced in larger quantities, but by 1999 world production of this essential oil was only 8 tonnes, compared to 400 tonnes from star anise.^[3]

Uses

A few anise seeds sitting on a piece of glass.

Culinary

Anise is sweet and very aromatic, distinguished by its licorice-like flavor.^[4] It is used in a wide variety of regional and ethnic confectioneries, including British Aniseed balls, Australian Humbugs, New Zealand Aniseed wheels, Italian pizzelle, German pfeffernusse and springerle, Netherland Muisjes, Norwegian knotts, and Peruvian Picarones. It is a key ingredient in Mexican "atole de anís" or champurrado, which is similar to hot chocolate, and taken as a digestive after meals in India.

Liquor

Anise is used to flavor the Bulgarian Mastika, the French spirits Absinthe, Anisette, and Pastis, the Greek Ouzo, the Arab Arak, the German Jägermeister, the Turkish Raki, the Italian Sambuca and the Colombian national drink Aguardiente. It's believed to be one of the secret ingredients in the French liqueur Chartreuse. It is also used in some root beer such as Virgil's in the United States.

Medicinal

• Anise, like fennel, contains anethole, a phytoestrogen.^[5]
• Anise is a mild antiparasitic and its leaves can be used to treat digestive problems, relieve toothache, and its essential oil to treat lice and scabies.
• Anise can be used to relieve menstrual cramps.^[6]

Miscellaneous

• In aromatherapy, aniseed essential oil is used to treat colds and flu.
• According to Pliny the Elder, anise was used as a cure for sleeplessness, chewed with alexanders and a little honey in the morning to freshen the breath, and when mixed with wine as a remedy for scorpion stings (N.H. 20.72).
• In Indian cuisine, no distinction is made between anise and fennel. Therefore, the same name (saunf) is usually given to both of them. Some use the term patli (thin) saunf or velayati (foreign) saunf to distinguish anise from fennel.
• In Lebanon and Syria boiling water is poured over about a tablespoon of aniseed in a teacup to make a hot tea.
• Builders of steam locomotives in Britain incorporated capsules of aniseed oil into white metal bearings, so that the distinctive smell would give warning in case of overheating.
• Aniseed is the flavour of "Black Jack" gum and Nigeria's "Tom Tom" candy.
• Anise can be made into a liquid scent and is used for both hunting and fishing. It is put on fishing lures to attract fish.^{[citation needed]}
• Anethole, the principal component of anise oil, is a precursor that can eventually produce 2,5-dimethoxybenzaldehyde which is used in the clandestine synthesis of psychedelic drugs such as 2C-B, 2C-I and DOB.^[7]

In Other Languages

• Анасон in Macedonian
• Anis or Erva-doce in Portuguese
• Yansoon (يانسون)in Arabic

Notes

1. ^ http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Pimp_ani.html
2. ^ How to Grow Anise
3. ^ Philip R. Ashurst (1999). Food Flavorings. Springer. p. 33. http://books.google.com/books?id=hrWuqmtwJiEC&dq=anethole&q=anethole#search_anchor. 
4. ^ Spice Pages: Anise Seeds (Pimpinella anisum)
5. ^ Albert-Puleo M (December 1980). "Fennel and anise as estrogenic agents". J Ethnopharmacol 2 (4): 337–44. PMID 6999244. 
6. ^ Muller-Schwarze, Dietland (2006). Chemical Ecology of Vertebrates. Cambridge University Press. pp. 287. ISBN 978-0521363778. 
7. ^ "Anise Oil as a Precursor for 2-Alkoxy-5-methoxybenzaldehydes". DEA Microgram Journal 2 (1 Anise can be used as antiviral, as a result of Tamiflu (R) for Influenza virus, they import it from china as an antiviral remedy.). http://www.dea.gov/programs/forensicsci/microgram/journal2004/page4.html. Retrieved on 2006-12-09. 

Sonf (سونف) Urdu

External links

• Anise medicinal uses, active ingredients, and additional details
• Detailed information about usage of Anise

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