Anise / star anise

Illicium verum, Pimpinella anisum

spice

Two unrelated spices with the same scent, anethole: aniseed, the small fruits of an umbellifer from the eastern Mediterranean that Charlemagne had grown, and star anise, the star-shaped fruit of a small tree from southern China. Aniseed has long been drunk as a tea after meals for bloating and gas.

Origin

Mediterranean (anise) and China (star anise)

Season (United States)

imported · all year round

Preparation

The star anise pod is taken out before serving; small green anise seeds are eaten. Only star anise sold as food: Japanese star anise, almost identical, is toxic to the nerves, and teas that contained it have given infants seizures. Never give star anise tea to a baby. Its scent is volatile: at the end of cooking, not the start.

Molecules

AnetholeIn small amounts, not counted Falcarinol · Limonene

Did you know?

To make Tamiflu, Roche used up to 90% of the world's star anise crop, the source of its shikimic acid.