Anise, Aniseed; F. Fruits d’Anis vert; G. Anis.
Botanical Origin—Pimpinella Anisum L., an annual plant, is indigenous to Asia Minor, the Greek Islands and Egypt, but nowhere to be met with undoubtedly growing wild. It is now also cultivated in many parts of Europe where the summer is hot enough for ripening its fruits, as well as in India and South America. It is not grown in Britain.
History—Anise, which the ancients obtained chiefly from Crete and Egypt, is among the oldest of medicines and spices.[1181] It is mentioned by Theophrastus, by the later writers Dioscorides and Pliny, as well as by Edrisi,[1182] who enumerates anise “sorte de graine douce” among the products of Tunisia. In Europe we find that Charlemagne (a.d. 812) commanded that anise should be cultivated on the imperial farms in Germany. The Anglo-Saxon writings contain frequent allusions to the use of dill and cumin, but we have failed to find in them any reference to anise, nor in the Meddygon Myddfai.
The Patent of Pontage granted by Edward I. in 1305 to raise funds for repairing the Bridge of London,[1183] enumerates Anise (anisium) among the commodities liable to toll. There are entries for it under the name of Annis vert in the account of the expenses of John, king of France, during his abode in England, 1359-60;[1184] and it is one of the spices of which the Grocers’ Company of London had the weighing and oversight from 1453.[1185] By the Wardrobe Accounts of Edward IV., a.d. 1480,[1186] it appears that the royal linen was perfumed by means of “lytill bagges of fustian stuffed with ireos and anneys.”
Anise seems to have been grown in England as a potherb prior to 1542, for Boorde in his Dyetary of Helth, printed in that year,[1187] says of it and fennel,—“these herbes be seldom vsed, but theyr seedes be greatly occupyde.”
In common with all other foreign commodities, anise was enormously taxed during the reign of Charles I., the duties levied upon it amounting to 75s. per 112 lb.[1188]
Description—Anise fruits, which have the usual characters of the order, are about ²/₁₀ of an inch in length, mostly undivided and attached to a slender pedicel. They are of ovoid form, tapering towards the summit, which is crowned by a pair of short styles rising from a thick stylopode; they are nearly cylindrical, but a little constricted towards the commissure. Each fruit is marked by 10 light-coloured ridges which give it a prismatic form; these as well as the rest of the surface of the fruit, are clothed with short rough hairs. The drug has a greyish brown hue, a spicy saccharine taste, and an agreeable aromatic smell.
Microscopic Structure—The most striking peculiarity of anise fruit is the large number of oil-ducts or vittæ it contains; each half of the fruit exhibits in transverse section nearly 30 oil-ducts, of which the 4 to 6 in the commissure are by far the largest. The hairs display a simple structure, inasmuch as they are the elongated cells of the epidermis a little rounded at the end.
Chemical Composition—The only important constituent of anise is the essential oil (Oleum Anisi), which the fruits afford to the extent of 3 per cent. from the best Moravian sort; Russian anise yields from 2·5 to 2·7 per cent., the German 2·3 per cent.[1189] This oil is a colourless liquid, having an agreeable odour of anise and a sweetish aromatic taste; its sp. gr. varies from 0·977 to 0·983. At 10° to 15° C., it solidifies to a hard crystalline mass, which does not resume its fluidity till the temperature rises to about 17° C.
Oil of anise resembles the oils of fennel, star-anise, and tarragon, in that it consists almost wholly of Anethol or Anise-camphor described in the previous article ([p. 309]). This fact explains the rotatory power of oil of anise being inferior to that of fennel. Oil of German anise, distilled by one of us, examined under the conditions stated, page 310, deviated only 1°·7, but to the left. Franck (1868) found oil of Saxon anise deviating 1°·1 to the right.