ANISE - extracted from Patricia G. Solley's pages

http://www.soupsong.com/fanise.html

The Anise ……. is native to Southwest Asia and North Africa. What we call "anise seeds" are actually the fruit of this annual …... plant, which grows about 18 inches high with …… a stalk that produces an umbrella of white flowers.

The distinctively licorice taste and smell of anise comes from anisic aldehyde -- and it is made into a potent liqueur, now mercifully substituted for Absinthe, famed Parisian drink of artists that actually poisoned them over time, it being derived from the narcotic and
poisonous oil of wormwood. Anisette (or Ouzo), by contrast, not only doesn't hurt you, it actually helps you, especially if you're undergoing a bout of gassiness.

This carminative is known to relieve flatulence: you can either chew the seeds or make a tea of them by boiling 1/2 teaspoon in a pint of water, then straining.

The anise plant is mentioned in the Bible. St. Matthew mentions it as he recounts Jesus' condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees who administered the Mosiac Law--those who worry about tithes and forget about heavenly truth.

ANISE - extracted from the book

"FÛSZERNÖVÉNYEINK ÉS FÛSZERKÉSZÍTÉS" (Inczefi Lajos)

…. His healing and seasoning power was well known by the Egyptians already in the ancient times. …. The anise is water and hotness loving, grows about 0,5 m, annual and her-baceous plant. There are three different shaped leaves on the finely lined and downy, plumb stalk …. .  The drug is in the plant's crop, which is an inverted pear shaped, rounded egg-shaped (ovoid) seed, that is slightly appressed sidewards. ….
The best quality seeds are green, the yellow means a worse kind. ……

ANISE - extracted from the book

"GYÓGYNÖVÉNYEK GYÓGYHATÁSAI" (Varró Aladár Béla)

Active ingredients: essential oil, fatty oil, salts, anethol, etc. ……….
Excellently usable and harmless expectorant and antispasmodic ……
Make a tea mixing anise with sage and peppermint, if you suffer from tonsillitis, it could be very helpful.

ANISE - extracted from the pages of Gernot Katzer

(http://www-ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~katzer/index.html)

Origin:

Eastern Mediterranean (Egypt?) or West Asia. Turkey is still an important producer in our days, but still better qualities come from Spain.

In Far Eastern cuisines (India, Iran, Indonesia), no distinction is made between anis and fennel (see below). Therefore, the same name is usually given to both of them. On the Philippines, star anis, there a popular spice, is referred to as "anis", too.

In Western cuisine, anis is mostly restricted to bread and cakes; occasionally, bread fruit products are aromatized with anis. In small dosage, it is sometimes contained in spice mixtures for sausages and stews. Its main application are, however, anis-flavoured liquors (raki, ouzo, pernod; see also southernwood on absinthe).

In the East, anis it is less known, fennel and star anis being easily available. It may, though, substitute fennel in Northern Indian recipes.

Several plants examanate an aroma comparable to that of anis. Within the Apiaceae (parsley family), both fennel and cicely copy anis' aroma nearly perfectly; to a lesser extent, chervil and dill also resemble anis, although their anis fragrance is not that pure as in the former mentioned plants. Even some other plants botanically not related might be mistaken for anis or at least resemble it closely: tarragon, licorice, star anis and some basil cultivars.

Anise - extracted from the pages of One Planet -
http://www.oneplanetnatural.com

(Pimpinella anisum), annual herb of the parsley family (Apiaceae, or Umbelliferae), cultivated chiefly for its fruits, called aniseed, the flavour of which resembles that of licorice. . Its small, yellowish white flowers form loose umbels. The fruit, or seed, is nearly ovoid in shape, about 3.5 mm (0.12 inch) long, and has five longitudinal dorsal ridges. Anise seed has a sweet, licorice-like flavor and is a slow-growing annual herb of the parsley family. The seed, planted in early spring, produces a plant that grows to a height of about three feet. Clusters of white flowers appear three months after planting and seeds are harvested a month later. The seeds are threshed and dried outdoors. At harvest, the seeds are a light greenish gray color, crescent shaped, and about one-fifth of an inch long. Though the anise seed has an unmistakable licorice flavor, it is not related to the European plant whose roots are the source of true licorice. Turkey, Spain, and Egypt are sources of anise seed. Of these, the bolder, more flavorful Spanish seed is considered a premium seed.

Aniseed is widely used to flavour pastries; it is the characteristic ingredient of a German bread called Anisbrod. In the Mediterranean region and in Asia, aniseed is commonly used in meat and vegetable dishes. It makes a soothing herbal tea and has been used medicinally from prehistoric times. In Rome, during the first century, anise was used as a flavoring in a popular spice cake that, baked in bay leaves, was believed to prevent indigestion. In 1305, the English collected a toll on anise seed to fund repairs to the London Bridge. A popular English condiment, it was also used to perfume the clothing worn by King Edward IV. Anise is one of the oldest cultivated spices and was known to the early Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Pliny the Elder claimed that if anise seed were placed under a pillow, it would prevent bad dreams. The Romans began to use anise as a food flavoring in the Middle Ages. In 1619, the Virginia Assembly enacted a law requiring each family to plant at least six anise seeds each year. The Shakers used anise as a medicinal herb.The essential oil content is about 2.5 percent, and its principal component is anethole. The essential oil is used to flavour absinthe, anisette, and Pernod liqueurs.