Star anise (Illicum verum) is part of the traditional pharmacopoeia in the Far East, where it is also used to spice up certain dishes. In France, star anise became famous as early as the 14th century thanks to the great chef Taillevent. As a matter of fact, it is the main ingredient of the famous "liqueur d'Arabie" so dear to Madame de Sevigne and the Marquise de Pompadour. In the 17th century, anise seed became a common commodity at grocery and hardware stores. This keen interest in star anise prompted merchants to promote it as a crop in several Far Eastern countries. Vessels of the East India Company off loaded their cargo in the Marseilles and Bordeaux harbors where some clever distillers invented the magic formula of the illustrious anisette, to be drunk as an aperitif "to accompany fresh water"...
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Basic Instruction
The Star Anise or Anise Seed,good remedy and useful seed step from ancient world.
Anise Seed:Star Anise(Illicium verum)
Botanical Source: Illicium verum Hook. f.
Origin:Illicium verum Hook. f.
Family: IlliciaceaeThis family is closely related to the magnoly family (Magnoliaceae).
Genus: Illicium Species: I. verum
Pin Yin Name:Ba Jiao Hui Xiang,BaJiao.Da Liao.
Synonyms :anise star,star anise seed,anise seed star,star anise,star aniseed,Anise Stars,Badain,Badiana,Chinese Anise,Also known as Chinese anise and badian anise,Sweet Cumin
French: anis de la Chine, anise etoile, badiane German: Sternanis Italian: anice stellato Spanish: anis estrllado,badian Indonesian: bunga lawang Malay: bunga lawang
Part Used:The characteristically shaped fruits (pods), always used in dried state. Besides the regular eight-pointed shape, one rarely finds single specimen with a larger number of carpels. The essential oil resides in the pericarp, not in the seed.
General Description:
Anise Seed is a graybrown oval seed from Pimpinella anisum, a plant in the parsley family. It is related to caraway, dill, cumin, and fennel.
Star anise is the dried pod or fruit of a small evergreen tree native to southwestern China. The dark brown pod has an appealing star shape with tiny round seeds encased in its spikes. It is one of only a handful of spices used in Chinese cooking and is an essential element in five-spice powder. It is also believed to impart some medicinal benefits, such as aiding digestion and soothing sore throats.
Native:It is a native of Egypt, Greece, Crete and Asia Minor and was cultivated by the ancient Egyptians,to China and Vietnam, star anise is today grown almost exclusively in southern China, Indo-China.It was well known to the Greeks, being mentioned by Dioscorides and Pliny and was cultivated in Tuscany in Roman times. In the Middle Ages its cultivation spread to Central Europe. It was first introduced into Europe in the seventeenth century(1600S). The oil, produced by a process of steam extraction, is substituted for European aniseed in commercial drinks.
Definition:n 1: small tree of China and Vietnam bearing anise-scented star-shaped fruit used in food and medicinally as a carminative [syn: Chinese anise, Illicium verum].An aromatic eastern Asian evergreen tree (Illicium verum) having purple-red flowers and starlike clusters of anise-scented fruit.The fruit of this plant, used in Asian cooking and medicine.
A spice, the seeds of Illicium verum, widely used in Chinese cooking. Distinct from aniseed.
Note:Difference:Star Anise(Illicium verum) is Not same as toxic Illicium anisatum:Illicium anisatum, a similar tree, is not edible because it is highly toxic; instead, it has been burned as incense in island of zapan. Cases of illness, including "serious neurological effects, such as seizures", reported after using star anise tea may be a result of using this species. zapanese star anise contains anisatin, which causes severe inflammation of the kidneys, urinary tract and digestive organs.
Mythological of Star Anise:
Anise mixed with bay leaves provides an excellent bath additive prior to ritual. Using anise in potpourri around the house wards off evil, and anise in your sleeping pillow at night will chase away the nightmares. The essential oil is used in ritual baths prior to any divination attempts. It is believed that hanging an anise seed head on your bedpost will restore lost youth.
In Biblical times, aniseed was used as a tithe and was cultivated by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. It is a popular flavouring agent for alcoholic drinks such as Pernod, anisette, ouzo and arak. The seed is often used in confectionery. Star anise (Illicium verum) comes from a tree indigenous to south-east Asia and has similar properties to Pimpinella.
Star Anise For the record:
Star anise (Illicum verum) is part of the traditional pharmacopoeia in the Far East, where it is also used to spice up certain dishes. In France, star anise became famous as early as the 14th century thanks to the great chef Taillevent. As a matter of fact, it is the main ingredient of the famous "liqueur d'Arabie" so dear to Madame de S¨¦vign¨¦ and the Marquise de Pompadour. In the 17th century, anise seed became a common commodity at grocery and hardware stores. This keen interest in star anise prompted merchantsto promote it as a crop in several Far Eastern countries. Vessels of the East
India Company offloaded their cargo in the Marseilles and Bordeaux harbors where some clever distillers invented the magic formula of the illustrious anisette, to be drunk as an aperitif "to accompany fresh water".
History: This herb had been used for many centuries. The ancient Greeks, including Hippocrates, prescribed it for coughs. Ancient Romans used Anise in a special cake that concluded their enormous feasts. Historically, the herb was used because of its flavor (licorice flavor), as an aid for digestion, as an aphrodisiac, for collic and to combat nausea. Ancient Chinese phycians used the herb as a digestive aid, flatulence remedy, and breath freshner. Early Engish herbalists recommended the herb for hiccups, for promoting milk production for nursing mothers, fro treatment of water retention, headache, asthma. Bronchitis, insomnia, nausea, lice, infant colic, cholera, and even cancer.
In Virgil's time, Anise was used as a spice. Mustacae, a spiced cake of the Romans introduced at the end of a rich meal, to prevent indigestion, consisted of meal, with Anise, Cummin and other aromatics. Such a cake was sometimes brought in at the end of a marriage feast, and is, perhaps, the origin of our spiced wedding cake.
On the Continent, especially in Germany, many cakes have an aniseed flavouring, and Anise is also used as a flavouring for soups.
It is largely employed in France, Spain Italy and South America in the preparation of cordial liqueurs. The liqueur Anisette added to cold water on a hot summer's day, makes a most refreshing drink.
Anise is one of the herbs that was supposed to avert the Evil Eye.
The oil extracted from the seed is said to prove a capital bait for mice, if smeared on traps. It is poisonous to pigeons.
Turner's Herbal, 1551, says that 'Anyse maketh the breth sweter and swageth payne.' 'The seeds,' says Delamer, Kitchen Garden, 1861, 'are much used by distillers to give flavour to cordial liqueurs.' Anisette is a liqueur flavoured with aniseed. Langham, Garden Health, 1683, says: 'For the dropsie, fill an old cock with Polipody and Aniseeds and seethe him well, and drink the broth.' The leaves are useful for seasoning some dishes. The essential oil of Anise is a good preventive of mould in paste. The ground seeds form an ingredient of sachet powders.
Medicinal Action and Uses: Carminative and pectoral. Anise enjoys considerable reputation as a medicine in coughs and pectoral affections. In hard, dry coughs where expectoration is difficult, it is of much value. It is greatly used in the form of lozenges and the seeds have also been used for smoking, to promote expectoration.
The volatile oil, mixed with spirits of wine forms the liqueur Anisette, which has a beneficial action on the bronchial tubes, and for bronchitis and spasmodic asthma, Anisette, if administered in hot water, is an immediate palliative.
For infantile catarrh, Aniseed tea is very helpful. It is made by pouring half a pint of boiling water on 2 teaspoonsful of bruised seed. This, sweetened, is given cold in doses of 1 to 3 teaspoonsful frequently.
Gerard said:
'Aniseed helpeth the yeoxing or hicket (hiccough) and should be given to young children to eat, which are like to have the falling sickness (epilepsy), or to/such as have it by patrimony or succession.'
The stimulant and carminative properties of Anise make it useful in flatulency and colic. It is used as an ingredient of cathartic and aperient pills, to relieve flatulence and diminish the griping of purgative medicines, and may be given with perfect safety in convulsions. For colic, the dose is 10 to 30 grains of bruised or powdered seeds infused in distilled water, taken in wineglassful doses, or 4 to 20 drops of the essential oil on sugar. For the restlessness of languid digestion, a dose of essence of aniseed in hot water at bedtime is much commended.
In the Paregoric Elixir (Compound Tincture of Camphor), prescribed as a sedative cordial by doctors, oil of Anise is also included - 30 drops in a pint of the tincture.
Etymology of Star Anise:
The Chinese names of star anise, Cantonese bat gok and Mandarin ba jiao [°Ë½Ç] both mean ¡°eight corners, octogon¡± and allude to the eight-pointed shape of star anise fruits (¡°eight corner spice¡±). In Chinese herbal medicine, star anise is known as ba jiao hui xiang [°Ë½ÇÜîÏã] ¡°eight-cornered fragrant fennel¡±.
English badian anise and related names in other European tongues (Spanish badi¨¢n, Latvian badjans and Russian badyan [§Ò§Ñ§Õ§î§ñ§ß]) are derived from the Persian name of star anise, badiyan. In English, and probably in other languages also, ¡°badian¡± sounds archaic and obsolete; it is found only in historical recipes, not in contemporary cookbooks.
Since its extreme olfactoric similarity to anise, star anise is named after anise in many European countries. Quite often, a name for star anise if formed by combining the local name for anise with an epithet referring to the Asian origin or the characteristic star-like shape, e.g., Turkish ?in anason and French anis de la Chine ¡°China-Anise¡± and Estonian t?htaniis, Polish any? gwiazdkowaty and Italian anice stellato, all meaning ¡°starlike anise¡±. In the opposite way, European anise is known as hat hoi [h?t h?i] ¡°grain-shaped star anise¡± in Vietnam.
The genus name Illicium is derived from Latin illicere ¡°allure¡±, probably because of the sweet and attractive fragrance.
China:Anodyne, Carminative, Cholera, Kidney, Stimulant
Elsewhere:Abortifacient, Asthma, Balsamic, Carminative, Colic, Cough, Diaphoretic Diuretic, Expectorant, FumitoryFungicide, Stomachic
Europe:Cancer
Mayala:Colic, Gonorrhea, Stomachach
Mexico:Carminative, Galactogogue
Turkey:Carminative, Expectorant, Lactogogue, Pectoral, Spasm, Spice, Stimulant, Stomachic, Sudorific
Star Anise Used plant part:
The characteristically shaped fruits (pods), always used in dried state. Besides the regular eight-pointed shape, one rarely finds single specimen with a larger number of carpels.
The essential oil resides in the pericarp, not in the seed
Whole Star Anise is often used in craftwork as it is so beautiful, on a plate as a garnish or floated in a pot of tea. Since the flavor of star anise is very strong, most star anise used in cooking is broken or powdered, as a whole star overpowers most dishes.
Broken Star Anise pieces are used in pickling (2- 3 points per quart), curry or stir fry (3-5 points per dish).
Powdered Star Anise is great for baking. Use 1 /3 as much as recipes using anise seed call for. Powdered star anise is essential for Chinese 5 spice and many Asian recipes for duck and pork.
Star anise is a spice that gets its name from its shape, it is the star shaped fruit of a small evergreen tree native to China. Each point of the star contains a shiny brown seed that is less aromatic than the pod.
Preparation and Storage:The whole stars can be added directly to the cooking pot; pieces are variously referred to as segments, points and sections. Otherwise, grind the whole stars as required. Small amounts are used, as the spice is powerful. Stored whole in airtight containers, it keeps for well over a year.
Spice Description:
A star-shaped, dark brown pod that contains a pea-size seed in each of its eight segments. Native to China, star anise comes from a small evergreen tree. Although the flavor of its seeds is derived from anethol (the same oil that gives anise seed its pronounced flavor), star anise has a different heritage-the magnolia family. Its flavor is slightly more bitter than that of regular anise seed. In Asian cuisines, star anise is a commonly used spice and tea flavoring. It's also widely used to flavor liqueurs and baked goods in Western cultures. It can be found whole in Asian markets and some supermarkets, and as a ground ingredient in Chinese five-spice powder.
Star anise is the unusual fruit of a small oriental tree. It is, as the name suggests, star shaped, radiating between five and ten pointed boat-shaped sections, about eight on average. These hard sections are seed pods. Tough skinned and rust coloured, they measure up to 3cm (1-1/4¡±) long. The fruit is picked before it can ripen, and dried. The stars are available whole, or ground to a red-brown powder.
Bouquet: Powerful and liquorice-like, more pungent and stronger than anise.
Flavour: Evocative of a bitter aniseed, of which flavour star anise is a harsher version. Nervertheless, the use of star anise ensures an authentic touch in the preparation of certain Chinese dishes.
Taste and Aroma:Anise Seeds smell and taste like licorice.
Attributed Medicinal Properties and Constituents:
Like anise, star anise has carminative, stomachic, stimulant and diuretic properties. In the East it is used to combat colic and rheumatism. It is a common flavouring for medicinal teas, cough mixtures and pastilles
Chinese star anise is an evergreen bush of the magnolia order grown in Vietnam and southern China. The ripe, strongly anise-smelling fruits open up in a star. They are used as a spice, and for the production of star anise oil by steam distillation.
Star anise oil is a colourless to pale yellow liquid which solidifies on cooling. The main component (80-90 %) is (E)-anethol. Star anise oil, and (E)-anethol isolated from it, is used in anise liqueur (Anisette, Sambuca) and anise brandy (Pernod, Ouzo, Raki, Arak), liquorice sweets, tooth-paste, etc. It has almost completely replaced the original anise seed oil, obtained from the umbellifer Pimpinella anisum.
Shikimic acid, used in the production of the antiviral drug Tamiflu(Roche), is extracted from the fruits of Chinese star anise and related species
(E)-anethol
shikimic acid anisatin
Main constituents of Star Anise:
The dried fruits may contain 5 to 8% of essential oil, which dominated by anethole (85 to 90%). The other components, phellandrene, safrole and terpineol, have only small effect on the aroma. Traces of 1,4 cineol can be used to distinguish star anise from anise, which (like most other spices) is free of this compound.
ActiveCompounds:Volatile oil, l-4%, consisting of largely trans-anethole (70-90%), with estragole (methylchavicol), anisic acid, b-caryophylline, anisaldehyde, linalool, anise ketone (methoxyphenylacetone); the polymers of anethole, dianethole and photoanethole; an Egyptian variety carvene, carvone, and alpha-zingiberene. . Coumarins, such as bergapten, umbelliferone, scopoletin . Flavonoid glycosides including rutin, isovitexin, quercetin, luteolin, and apigenin glycosides . Phenylpropanoids, including l-propenyl-2-hydroxy-5-methoxy-benzene-2- (2- methyl-butyrate)! . Misc. lipids, fatty acids, sterols, proteins and carbohydrates.
Star anise contains anethole, the same ingredient which gives the unrelated anise its flavor. Recently, star anise has come into use in the West as a less expensive substitute for anise in baking as well as in liquor production, most distinctively in the production of the liquor Galliano.
Traditional Ethnic of Star Anise:
Europeans use Anise in cakes, cookies, and sweet breads. In the Middle East and India, it is used in soups and stews. Its licoricelike flavor is popular in candies and Anise oil is used in liqueurs.
Culinary Uses of Star Anise:
All over China, five spice powder (wu xiang fen, ng geung fun, ngung heung fun, hung-liu [ÎåÏã·Û]) is known and valued. This spice mixture contains star anise, cassia (or cinnamon), cloves, fennel and sichuan pepper usually to equal parts. Optionally, ginger, galanga, black cardamom or even liquorice may be added. These spices should be kept whole and powdered before usage.
Star anise is used in the East as aniseed is in the West. Apart from its use in sweetmeats and confectionery, where sweeteners must be added, it contributes to meat and poultry dishes, combining especially well with pork and duck. In Chinese red cooking, where the ingredients are simmered for a lengthy period in dark soy sauce, star anise is nearly always added to beef and chicken dishes. Chinese stocks and soups very often contain the spice.. It flavours marbled eggs, a decorative Chinese hors d¡¯oeuvre or snack. Mandarins with jaded palates chew the whole dried fruit habitually as a post-prandial digestant and breath sweetener - an oriental comfit. In the West, star anise is added in fruit compotes and jams, and in the manufacture of anise-flavoured liqueurs, the best known being anisette. It is an ingredient of the mixture known as ¡°Chinese Five Spices¡±.
Remedies For: Expectorant, anti-spasmodic, carminative, anti-microbial, aromatic, galactogogue. Improves memory, get rid of oily skin, calm coughs, increases milk production for nursing mothers and serve as a natural antacid.
Aniseed has been demonstrated to increase mucociliary transport and so supporting its use as an expectorant. It has mild estrogenic effects, thought to be due to the presence of dianethole and photoanethole, which explains the use of this plant in folk medicine to increase milk secretion, facilitate birth and increase libido.
Anise is a stimulant and carminative; used in cases of flatulence, flatulent colic of infants, and to remove nausea. Sometimes added to other medicines to improve their flavour, correct griping and other disagreeable effects..
Western herbalism medicinal uses:
Summary The volatile oil in aniseed provides the basis for its internal use to ease griping, intestinal colic and flatulence. It also has a marked expectorant and antispasmodic action and may be used in bronchitis, in tracheitis where there is persistent irritable coughing, and to reduce the symptoms of whooping cough. Externally, the oil may be used in an ointment base for the treatment of scabies and lice infestations. Aniseed's mild oestrogenic effects, thought to be due to the presence of diantheole and photoantheole, explain the use of this plant in folk medicine to increase milk secretion, facilitate birth and increase libido.
Application For bronchial infections and spasmodic coughs, specifically for tracheal irritations. Also to reduce the symptoms of whooping cough. useful for the treatment of colic and flatulence and a s an accompaniment for stimulating laxatives. Anise oil may be applied locally for the treatment of scabies and lice infestations.
Dosage 0.5 - 1 gram of dried fruits or equivalent 3 times a day
Cautions:Pimpinella and Illicium verum (Chinese star anise) should not be confused with Illicium lanceolatum which is poisonous.
Using too much aniseed can over-sedate and excessively slow the metabolism. For example: Take aniseed tea once a day for three weeks, stop for ten days, and repeat the course a further three times before stopping.
Medicinal Uses of Star Anise:
Antibacterial; Carminative; Diuretic; Odontalgic; Stimulant; Stomachic.
Diuretic, odontalgic, stimulant.
The fruit is carminative, stimulant and stomachic. It is used primarily to promote digestion and the appetite, and to relieve flatulence. It also makes a good additive to other medicines to improve their taste.
The leaves and the seeds are antibacterial.
Colic,rheumatism and digestion:Star anise has been used in a tea as a remedy for colic and rheumatism, and the seeds are sometimes chewed after meals to aid digestion.
Increasing libido:Anise contains some compounds that are estrogenic (anethole, similar to estrogen female hormone) and promotes menstruation, facilitating childbirth, increasing libido in women and oddly enough some people have reported androgenic (male hormone) effects as well. Its worth the try, after all it has a reputation for increasing the male libido.
Get rid of Oily skin:According to the Encyclopedia of Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs (Heinerman), Anise will get rid of oily skin, improve your memory, calm a cough, produce breast milk and serve as a natural antacid in place of either Tums or Rolaids for heartburn and indigestion. Simply bring a quart (~liter) of water to a boil, add 7 teaspoons of dried Anise. Reduce heat and simmer to about one and a half pints, strain and add four teaspoons each of honey and Glycerin (used to preserve syrup tea). Take two teaspoons of this syrup every few hours to relieve hacking coughs; two tablespoons three times daily to enhance memory. As a tea, omit honey and glycerin, drink two cups once or twice daily for skin problems, lactation and stomach problems.
Bird Flu:Shikimic acid, a primary feedstock used to create the anti-flu drug Tamiflu, is produced by most autotrophic organisms, but star anise is the industrial source. Tamiflu is regarded as the most promising drug to mitigate the severity of bird flu (H5N1); however, reports indicate that some forms of the virus have already adapted to Tamiflu.
In 2005, there was a temporary shortage of star anise due to its use in making Tamiflu. Late in that year, a way was found of making shikimic acid artificially. A drug company named Roche now derives some of the raw material it needs from fermenting e-coli bacteria. There is no longer any shortage of star anise and it is readily available and is relatively cheap.
Star anise is grown in four provinces in China and harvested between March and May. The shikimic acid is extracted from the seeds in a ten-stage manufacturing process which takes a year. Reports say 90% of the harvest is already used by the Swiss pharmaceutical manufacturer Roche in making Tamiflu, but other reports say there is an abundance of the spice in the main regions - Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan.
Safety:
The 1997 Commission E on Phytotherapy and Herbal Substances of the German Federal Institute for Drugs recommends Anise for 'Internal: Dyspeptic complaints. Internal and external use: Catarrhs of the respiratory tract.'
Side Effects: Occasional allergic reactions of skin, respiratory tract, and gastrointestinal tract.
Dosage: Internal: Average daily dosage: 3 g of drug; Essential oil 0.3 g; equivalent preparations. External: Preparations containing 5 - 10 percent essential oil. Mode of Administration: Comminuted drug for infusions and other galenical preparations for internal use or for inhalation. Note: The purpose of an external application of an anise preparation is the inhalation of essential oil. Actions: Expectorant; Mildly antispasmodic; Antibacterial.'
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage: A stimulant and carminative; used in cases of flatulency, flatulent colic of infants, and to remove nausea. Sometimes added to other medicines to improve their flavor, correct griping and other disagreeable effects. The dose of aniseed, crushed or powdered, is from 20 to 40 grains. Infusion (ij or iij to aqua Oss.), for infants, in doses of a teaspoonful.
Scientific References:
1.The Star Anise or Anise Seed,good remedy and useful seed step from ancient world...
Claims & Warning:
Claims: Information this web site presented is meant for Nutritional Benefit and as an educational starting point only, for use in maintenance and promotion good health in cooperation with a common knowledge base reference...Furthermore,it based solely on the traditional and historic use or legend of a given herb from the garden of Adonis. Although every effort has been made to ensure its accurate, please note that some info may be outdated by more recent scientific developments......
Pharmakon Warning: The order of knowledge is not the transparent order of forms and ideas,as one might be tempted retrospectively to interpret it; it is the antidote....(Dissemination,Plato's Pharmacy,II.The Ingredients:Phantasms,Festivals,and Paints;138cf. Jacques Derrida.).
And as it happens,the technique of imitation,along with the production of the simulacrum,has always been in Plato's eyes manifestly magical,thaumaturgical:......and the same things appear bent and straight to those who view them in water and out,or concave and convex,owing to similar errors of vision about colors, and there is obviously every confusion of this sort in our souls.And so scene painting (skiagraphia) in its exploitation of this weakness of four nature falls nothing short of witchcraft (thaumatopoia), and so do jugglery and many other such contrivances.(Republic X,602c-d;cf.also 607c).
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Newly Developed Extracts Series:
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Serie No.:R043.Basic Data Sheet Download
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seminal trace...Anise extract.Anise Seed extract.CAS.NO.084650-59-9.84775-42-8.Extract.Star anise,Illicium verum, ext.Star Anise Fruit,Fructus Anisi Stellati.5:1,10:1...
General Description:
-anethol.gif){kind=small}
anisatin 
Scientific References:
Claims & Warning:
