Fennel. Useful properties of spices

Fennel is grown as a cultural biennial plant, in the first year giving stems and greens, and in the second year - flowers and seeds. Only in the Caucasus and Crimea it can be found in the wild. Externally, it is difficult to distinguish a fennel bush from a bush of ordinary dill, both plants are very similar: straight branched stems, severely dissected leaves, small yellow flowers, and later fruits collected in an umbrella, except that the fennel is up to one meter tall and larger. Fennel has the same properties as dill. But the taste of them is completely different. Fennel has a sweetish taste and a spicy aroma reminiscent of the taste and aroma of anise.

The plant is of two types: fennel common and fennel vegetable. Leaf stalks last closer to the base thicken, forming small kochanchiki. Fennel partially preserves its useful properties when cooked with heat. The plant contains few calories, does not cause allergies and belongs to the group of dietary products. All parts of vegetable fennel are used in cooking: both leaves and petioles, rich in vitamin C and carotene, and flowers with seeds, and even roots. Greens are added to vegetable dishes, soups, to conservation; Stems and roots are stewed, boiled, added to salads in raw form; From the seeds are obtained essential oil, they are put in pickles, in flour products, they are used in the preparation of alcoholic beverages, teas. Practically does not lose fennel useful properties, if you dry it for the winter its leaves or store juicy petioles in moist sand.

Traditional and traditional medicine uses for medicinal purposes only seeds of fennel ordinary, called in the people for similarity with dill odorous pharmacy dill. What is useful for fennel, was known to the ancient Chinese and Egyptians, they cultivated it and used both as a medicine and as a spice. An old English saying says that someone who sees fennel, passes by, can be considered a devil, not a person. The plant was on the list of nine specially revered herbs of the ancient Saxons. In the 18th century, Stephenson prepared an effective medicine based on fennel, used to treat kidney diseases. Stephenson long kept the secret of preparing a popular means, until the British Parliament forced him to open the secret, paying, however, for this five thousand pounds sterling.

The fennel acts as an expectorant, which enhances the function of the glands of the digestive canal, and a gentle laxative and diuretic. Has fennel useful properties due to high content in the seeds of volatile oil (up to 6.5%), traces of anisic acid, anisaldehyde, carotene, rutin, ascorbic acid and other substances. The experience of many generations has shown that the use of fennel for bowel swelling, intestinal and gastric spasms and colitis is undoubtedly useful (now the plant can be found in all gastric teas, dill water), intestinal colic in infants, kidney and gallbladder diseases, cold accompanied by cough. Its fruits act as a means of increasing the amount of milk allocated to mothers breastfeeding, exciting appetite, intensifying menstruation; They improve the taste of certain medicines. By the way, from the seeds of fennel ordinary receive essential oil, used not only in medicine, but also in perfume industry, soap making.

When flatulence, intestinal colic in infants prepare hot infusion, pouring a glass of boiling water one teaspoon of the crushed seeds of this plant. After a ten-minute infusion, the infusion should be drunk during the day. When the intestines are inflated in adults, the dose is increased three-fold: a glass of boiling water is taken not one but three teaspoons of ground fennel seeds.