Useful and medicinal properties of anis

Family Umbrella( Celery) - Apiaceae

The generic name is taken from the ancient Greek name of the plant, which was used in medicine even in the time of Hippocrates, the species definition in Latin means "ordinary".

Botanical description. Annual herbaceous plant with a thin rooted root and erect, slightly ribbed stem, 30-60 cm high. The first basal leaves are kidney-shaped, with a serrated margin, subsequently dry up. The stem cells are regular, peri-cut, below the ternary with wedge-shaped segments and long petioles, upward the segments narrow, and the leaves become sessile. Like all umbelliformes, the petioles at the base are dilated into the leaf sheath. The flowers are white, small, regular, collected in complex umbrellas without a general and partial wrapping. Calyx in the form of five hardly noticeable denticles, corolla of five petals, stamens alternate with segments of corolla. Pestle is one with a lower two-cavity ovary. Fruit is a fruit-tree, which does not decay during maturation.

Blossoms in June - July, fruits ripen in August.

Geographical distribution. A long-cultivated plant originally from Asia Minor. Culture is conducted in the state farms of medicinal plants.

Collection and drying. Harvest at the time of maturing half of the fruit. The plants are cut with mowers, dried in rolls. In this case, the fruit ripens. When all the fruits become dry, the tips are threshed and cleaned of impurities on the sorts.

Medicinal raw materials. Finished raw materials - fruits of anise( Fructus A nisi) consist of yellowish-gray or brown-to-gray hornfels of an ovoid shape, covered with hairs. Each semiploon has 5 longitudinal little prominent ribs. At the top of the fetus, two columns and a superimposed disc are often seen. The length of the fruit is 3-5 mm, width 2-3 mm. Odor characteristic( anise), the taste is sweetish-spicy.

essential oil not less than 1.5%;moisture not more than 12%;ash total not more than 10%;damaged and underdeveloped anise fruit not more than 5%;

essential oil and organic impurity not more than 1%;mineral impurity and sieving through a sieve with a hole diameter of 1 mm is not more than 1%.

Chemical composition. Fruits contain essential oil - Oleum Anisi, which is obtained by distilling the crushed fruits with water vapor. Essential oil contains 80-90% crystalline anethole, up to 10% of its liquid isomer methylhavicol, anise aldehyde and ketone, anisic acid, fatty oil, protein substances, furocoumarins, etc.

Action and application. Anethole of anise oil, exuding through the mucous membrane of the bronchi, has an irritant effect on them, which, on the one hand, leads to acceleration of the cilia of the ciliated epithelium, and on the other, to reflex excitation of respiration. This increases the secretion of bronchial mucus, both direct and reflex.

Ether anise oil is a part of ammonia-anise drops - Liquor ammonii anisatus and thoracal elixir - Elexir pectorale, which, like fruits, is used for catarrh of the respiratory tract, tracheitis, bronchitis as expectorant.

Anise preparations help to sputum, dilute it, clean the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract. Widely used in diseases of the respiratory system.

Essential oil and furokumariny have an antispasmodic effect, the oil stimulates the motor and sokootootditelnuyu function of the digestive apparatus, has a weak disinfectant effect, increases the separation of milk from nursing mothers.

Fruits of anise are a part of breast, gastric, diaphoretic and other charges.