The Star Anise or Anise Seed,good remedy and useful seed step from ancient world.

Contents

• Botanical Info of Star Anise.
• Mythology of Star Anise.
• Star Anise For the record.
• Etymology of Star Anise.
• Star Anise Used plant part.
• Spice Description:Star Anise.
• Star Anise Attributed Medicinal Properties and Constituents.
• Traditional Ethnic of Star Anise.
• Culinary Uses of Star Anise.
• Star Anise Western herbalism medicinal uses.
• Medicinal Uses of Star Anise.
• Star Anise Safety.
• Research Update:Star Anise.

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 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 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.

Gerard

  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.

Reference:

• 1.The Star Anise or Anise Seed,good remedy and useful seed step from ancient world.

This article written and edited via herbalist of MDidea Extracts Professional. They run a range of online descriptions about this herb,including general information related and summarized updating discoveries from findings of professional scientisits this field related.Describe style aimed to form a useful detecting literature space where the intertwined threshold and related questions raise out and visualize themselves.

♣ last edit date:13th,Oct.2010.