What are
Fennel seeds - which actually make up the fruit of the plant Foeniclum vulgare Mill - are a product widely used in herbal medicine and cooking, since the fourteenth century.
Cultivated fennel is an annual or biennial plant with a tap root; it reaches 60-80cm in height and the white lump at the base is consumed (the "popular" distinction between male and female refers exclusively to the shape assumed by the plant but is totally unfounded).
Nutrients and active ingredients
Fennel seeds (more correctly defined "achenes": achene is a dry fruit with a more or less hardened pericarp and which contains a single seed that is distinct from the pericarp itself) have a chemical composition rich in essential oils; the most important active ingredients are:
- Trans-anethole - (aromatic unsaturated ether) - sweet
- Fencone and Feniculina - bitter
- Anisic ketone (p-methoxyphenalacetone)
- Dipinene - (bicyclic terpene)
- Camphene - (bicyclic monoterpene) pungent odor
- Fellandrene - (unsaturated cyclic terpene hydrocarbon)
- Dipentene - (terpene hydrocarbon) pleasant lemon smell
- Methylcavicular acid - (methyl ether of an allyl derivative of benzene)
- Estragon (Methyl Chavicol) - pleasant smell of anise - in high doses, POTENTIALLY CARCINOGENIC
- Limonene - (cyclic monoterpene hydrocarbon) lemon odor
- Flavonoids
NB .: The active ingredients of fennel, if taken in concentrated and high doses, can induce hallucinogenic effects.
Health properties
The TYPICAL therapeutic application of decoctions based on fennel seeds concerns the reduction of symptoms related to digestive difficulties; the hot infusion of fennel seeds (one gram of achenes per 100ml of water at 60-70 ° C for 6- About 8 minutes) allows (if consumed before a meal) to take active ingredients useful for the improvement of: epigastric heaviness, drowsiness, aerophagia, hiccups, pregnancy vomiting, intestinal fermentation-tension and abdominal cramps.
It seems that the infusions based on fennel seeds also act effectively on diuresis and give the newborn a greater palatility of breast milk.
Some phytotherapists argue that fennel seeds have a galactogogue effect, especially in reaching the milk supply, but there are NO studies that demonstrate its effectiveness.
Side effects
A study published in "Food and Chemical Toxicology" directed and reviewed by "INRAN (National Institute for Nutrient Assumption Research), shows that the levels of ESTRAGOLO (molecule with carcinogenic action) introduced on average by consumers of decoction based on fennel seeds are excessively high; furthermore, if the consumer is pregnant or breastfeeding, the transfer of estragole to the fetus or infant is inevitable. It is therefore probable that the excessive consumption (direct or indirect) of fennel seeds, therefore of estragole, increases the carcinogenic risk both for the adult and for the fetus and infant.
Bibliography:
- Kaledin VI, Pakharukova MIu, Pivovarova EN, Kropachev KIu, Baginskaia NV, Vasil "eva ED, Il" nitskaia SI, Nikitenko EV, Kobzev VF, Merkulova TI - Effect of hepatocarcinogenicity of estragole on the glucocorticoid-mediated induction of liver-specific enzymes and the activity of the transcription factors FOXA and HNF4 in the liver of mouse and rat- Biofizika. 2010 Mar-Apr; 55: 326-35.
- Raffo, S. Nicoli, C. Leclercq - Quantification of estragole in fennel herbal teas: implications on the assessment of dietary exposure to estragole - National Research Institute for Food and Nutrition (Inran), via Ardeatina 546, 00178 Rome, Italy
- New dictionary of commodity and applied chemistry. Volume 1- Villavecchia Eigenman - Hoepli.
