Common fennel (lat. Foenículum vulgáre) is a one-, two-, or perennial plant, a species of the genus Fennel (Foeniculum) of the Umbrella family (Apiaceae).
The popular names of the plant are dill, pharmacy, dill Voloshsky.
It grows wild in North Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia), Western (Italy, France, England, Spain, Portugal) and Southeast Europe (Albania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece), Central and Western Asia , New Zealand, North, Central and South America.
It grows on dry stony slopes, along ditches, grassy places, as well as near roads and housing, in weedy places. Cultivated in many countries.
The root is fusiform, fleshy, wrinkled, 1 cm thick, branched at the top, many-headed. The whole plant is bluish.
Stem up to 90-200 cm tall, straight, rounded, finely ribbed, highly branched.
Leaves are alternate, thrice-, quadruply-pinnately dissected, ovate-triangular, lobes of the last order are linear-filiform or linear-awl-shaped. Lower petioles, upper sessile on the expanded vagina. The vagina is 3-6 cm long, narrowly oblong, somewhat enlarged to the apex.
Five-membered flowers. Double umbrellas with 3–20 rays, 3–15 cm across. Petals are widely ovoid, yellow, about 1 mm long and wide.
The fruit is ovate-oblong, 5-10 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, glabrous, greenish-brown ovoid, which breaks up into two half-fruits (mericarp), sweet in taste, resembles anise.
It blooms in July – August, bears fruit in September.
Chemical composition
The plant has a high content of essential oils. Their fruits contain up to 6.5%, and in the leaves – up to 0.5%. Fennel essential oil has a characteristic aroma and spicy sweet taste. It consists of: anethole, fenhon, methylhavikol, α-pinene, α-fellandren, cineole, limonene, terpinolene, citral, bornyl acetate, camphor and other substances. Fruits also contain up to 12-18% of fatty oils, consisting of petrozelinic (60%), oleic (22%), linoleic (14%) and palmitic (4%) acids.
The grass of the plant, in addition, contains a large number of flavonoids, glycosides, ascorbic acid, carotene, vitamins and various minerals.
As a medicine, fennel was used by Hippocrates and Asklepiad Vifinsky (as a diuretic), Dioscorides and Pliny the Elder (as an ophthalmic), Avicenna (as an expectorant).
As medicinal raw materials use the fennel fruit (lat. Fructus Foeniculi) and the essential oil (Oleum Foeniculi) extracted from the fruit.
Essential oil is part of the licorice elixir, used as an antitussive.
Fennel fruits are part of laxative, carminative, choleretic, breast and sedative.
Oil is used to produce dill water used for flatulence, especially in children.
It is recommended to steam with a mixed broom with the inclusion of stems and leaves of ordinary fennel, and also externally use certain plant preparations – leaf infusion, fruit infusion, and others – recommended for neurasthenia, increased excitability of the central nervous system, insomnia, and inflammatory (bacterial) skin diseases , eels, furunculosis.
From the fruits of fennel receive the drug “Anetin” – the amount of active substances. It has an antispasmodic effect, especially in relation to the smooth muscles of the intestine, to a lesser extent – in relation to coronary vessels. In therapeutic practice, it is used for chronic spastic colitis, for spasms of the abdominal organs, for chronic coronary insufficiency.
Included in Safay Ultra.