Anise(Anason) which grows with feathery leaves, umbels of yellow flowers, and ridged gray-green seeds, is native to the eastern Mediterranean, western Asia, and North Africa. Anise is widely cultivated for its seeds, which are used both medicinally and as a flavoring agent in cooking.

History of Anise:
Since ancient times, the sweet-tasting anise seed has been used both as a spice and as a popular remedy. Anise has been cultivated in Egypt for at least 4000 years. Pharaonic medical texts indicate that the seeds were used as a diuretic, to treat digestive problems, and to relieve toothache. Anise was also well known to the ancient Greeks. Dioscorides (1st century AD), wrote that anise "warms, dries and dissolves; facilitates breathing, relieves pain, provokes urine and eases thirst." In his 'A New Herball of 1551,' William Turner recorded that Anyse maketh the breth sweter, and swageth Payne." Since the Middle Ages, anise tea has been sipped by nursing mothers to increase milk production. This old wives tale appears to be based on fact: A study done at Auburn University, Alabama, USA, shows that cows sprayed with anise oil produced more milk than cows sprayed with other fragrances. Folklore says that if you place anise on your pillow it will ward off bad dreams.

Anise Use For:
Anise is remedy for Gas, Indigestion, Nausea and abdominal pain, Coughs, Asthma, Bronchitis.
Anise seeds antispasmodic properties make them helpful in countering menstrual pain. Their expectorant action justifies their use for certain respiratory ailments.
Anise seeds may be beneficial in treating impotence and frigidity. Anise essential oil is used for similar complaints, and is also used externally for lice and scabies.

Anise Includes:
Anise contains a volatile oil (comprising 70 - 90% anethole, together with methyl chavicol and other terpenes), furanocoumarins, flavonoids, fatty acids, phenylpropanoids, sterols, and proteins. Anethole has an observed estrogenic effect, and the seeds as a whole are mildly estrogenic. This effect may substantiate the herb's use as a stimulant of sexual drive and of breast-milk production.