Production and Commerce—Anise is produced in Malta, about Alicante in Spain, in Touraine and Guienne in France, in Puglia (Southern Italy), in several parts of Northern and Central Germany, Bohemia and Moravia. The Russian provinces of Orel, Tula and Woronesh, south of Moscow, also produce excellent anise, and in Southern Russia, Charkow is likewise known for the production of this drug. In Greece, anise is largely cultivated under the name of γλυάισον, and it is much grown in Northern India. Considerable quantities are also now imported from Chili. The drug is, on the whole, always of a remarkably uniform appearance.
Uses—Anise is an aromatic stimulant and carminative, usually administered in the form of essential oil as an adjunct to other medicines. It is also used as a cattle medicine. The essential oil is largely consumed in the manufacture of cordials, chiefly in France, Spain, Italy, and South America.
Adulteration—The fruits of anise are sometimes mixed with those of hemlock, but whether by design or by carelessness we know not. Careful inspection with a lens will reveal this dangerous adulteration. We have known powdered anise also to contain hemlock, and have detected it by trituration in a mortar with a few drops of solution of potash, a sample of pure anise for comparison being tried at the same time.
The essential oil of aniseed may readily be confounded with that of Star-anise, which is distilled from the fruits of the widely different Illicium anisatum. As stated at [p. 22], these oils agree so closely in their chemical and optical properties, that no scientific means are known for distinguishing them.
RADIX SUMBUL.
Sumbul Root; F. Racine de Sumbul, Sambola ou Sambula; G. Moschuswurzel.
Botanical Origin—Ferula Sumbul Hooker fil. (Euryangium Sumbul Kauffmann[1190]), a tall perennial plant discovered in 1869 by a Russian traveller, Fedschenko, in the mountains of Maghian near Pianjakent, in the northern part of the Khanat of Bukhara, nearly 40° N. lat., and 68° to 69° E. long. From Wittmann’s statements (1876) it would appear that the Sumbul plant abounds far east from that country, in the coast province of the Amoor. A living plant transmitted from the former district to the Botanical Garden of Moscow flowered there in 1871, another in 1875 at Kew, where the plant died after flowering.
History—The word sumbul, which is Arabic and signifies an ear or spike, is used as the designation of various substances, but especially of Indian Nard, the rhizome of Nardostachys Jatamansi DC. Under what circumstances, or at what period, it came to be applied to the drug under notice, we know not. Nor are we better informed as to the history of sumbul root, which we have been unable to trace by means of any of the works at our disposal. All we can say is, that the drug was first introduced into Russia about the year 1835 as a substitute for musk, that it was then recommended as a remedy for cholera, and that it began to be known in Germany in 1840, and ten years afterwards in England. It was admitted into the British Pharmacopœia in 1867.
Description—The root as found in commerce consists of transverse slices, 1 to 2 inches, rarely as much as 5 inches in diameter, and an inch or more in thickness; the bristly crown, and tapering lower portions, often no thicker than a quill, are also met with. The outside is covered by a dark papery bark; the inner surface of the slices is of a dirty brown, marbled with white, showing when viewed with a lens an abundant resinous exudation, especially towards the circumference. The interior is a spongy, fibrous, farinaceous-looking substance, having a pleasant musky odour and a bitter aromatic taste.
Microscopic Structure—The interior tissue of sumbul root is very irregularly constructed of woody and medullary rays, while the cortical part exhibits a loose spongy parenchyme. The structural peculiarity of the root becomes obvious, if thin slices are moistened with solution of iodine, when the medullary rays assume by reason of the starch they contain an intense blue. The structure of the root differs from the usual arrangement by the formation of independent secondary cambial zones with fibro-vascular bundles within the original cambium. Similar peculiarities are also displayed by the roots of Myrrhis odorata, Convolvulus Scammonia, Ipomœa Turpethum and others.[1191] Large balsam-ducts are also observable in Sumbul as well as in the roots of many other Umbelliferæ.[1192]