Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is a plant species in the genus Foeniculum (treated as the sole species in the genus by most botanists). It is a member of the family Apiaceae (formerly the Umbelliferae). It is a hardy, perennial, umbelliferous herb, with yellow flowers and feathery leaves. It is indigenous to the shores of the Mediterranean, but has become widely naturalised in many parts of the world, especially on dry soils near the sea-coast and on riverbanks.
It is a highly aromatic and flavorful herb with culinary and medicinal uses, and, along with the similar-tasting anise, is one of the primary ingredients of absinthe. Florence fennel or finocchio is a selection with a swollen, bulb-like stem base that is used as a vegetable.
Fennel is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the mouse moth and the anise swallowtail.
Phytoconstituents
An analysis of fennel shows it to consist of
- Moisture6.3%,
- Protein 9.5%,
- Fat 10%,
- Minerals 13.4%,
- Ffiber 18.5%
- Carbohydrates 42.3%.
Its mineral and vitamin contents are
- Calcium,
- Phosphorous,
- Iron,
- Sodium,
- Potassium,
- Thiamine,
- Rriboflavin,
- Niacin
- Vitamin C.
Its calorific value is 370 (Bakhru, 1992).
The oil yield (2.5 – 5%)varies according to variety and origin and the highest concentration of fennel oil ranging from 2 – 7% is found in seeds.
According to (Bernath et al., 1996; Raghavan, 2006; Cosge etal., 2008); Fennel volatile oil is a mixture of at least a dozenof different chemicals and the main ingredients are:
- Anethole (40 – 70%),
- Fenchone (1 – 20%)
- Estragole (2- 9%)
- Pinene, Chavicole, Dipentene, Limenene etc. are present in concentrationusually less than 1%.
Therapeutic uses and biological activities
Fennel is chiefly known as culinary herb but it is acommonly used household remedy for various medicinal purposes (Sandhu and Heinrich, 2005). Fruits are used as spice and condiment, as carminative and stimulant,also employed as flavouring agent in culinary preparations,confectionary etc. Water extracts are given as adigestive tonic to infants and children. Fennel is often added to purgatives in order to allay their tendency tocause gripe.
In a study carried out on rats, Foeniculumvulgare has shown a protective effect against ethanol induced gastric mucosal lesions (Birdane et al., 2007).Fennel has shown anticancer (Celik and Isik, 2008; Singhand Kale, 2008); antidementia (Joshi and Parle, 2006);antihirsutism (Javidnia et al., 2003); anti-inflammatory(Choi and Hwang, 2004); antioxidant (Ruberto et al.,2000; Satyanarayana et al., 2004; Faudale et al., 2008;Topal et al., 2008; Barros et al., 2009; Nickavar andAbolhasani, 2009); antiplatelet and antithrombotic(Tognolini et al., 2006, 2007); antispasmodic activities(Ostad et al., 2001) and as curative in infantile colic(Alexandrovich et al., 2003; Savino et al., 2005).
It has also been reported to possess bronchodilatory(Boskabady et al., 2004); diuretic (Wright et al., 2007);hepatoprotective (Ozbek et al., 2003); hypotensive (ElBardai et al., 2001); immunomodulatory (Kaileh et al.,2007); insecticidal (Kim and Ahn, 2001; Traboulsi et al.,2005); mosquito repellant activities (Kim et al., 2002,2004); nematicidal (Oka et al., 2000); and oculohypotensive properties (Agarwal et al., 2008); and pain reliever inprimary dysmenorrhoea (Ostad et al., 2001; Modaressand Asadipour, 2006).
Anethole has a chemical structure similar to a chemical, called, dopamine, naturally presentin the body. Dopamine is known to have a relaxing effecton the intestine and perhaps, explains why fennel has a beneficial effect on infantile colic.
Antimicrobial properties
Essential oil of fennel has been reported to possess antifungal activity (Mimica-Dukic et al., 2003; Soylu et al.,2006).
Essential oil and seed extracts of fennel have also shown antimycobacterial and anticandidal activity (Abed,2007; Camacho-Corona et al., 2008).
Fennel essential oils could also be used as possible bio fungicides,alternative to synthetic fungicides against phyto pathogenic fungi as it has been reported to reduce the mycelialgrowth and germination of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Soyluet al., 2007).
Fennel essential oils showed antibacterial effect against foodborne pathogens such as Escherichia coliand Bacillus megaterium (Lo-Cantore et al., 2004); E. coliand S. aureus (Mohsenzadeh, 2007); E. coli O157:H7, L.monocytogenes, Salmonella typhimurium and S. aureus(Dadalioglu and Evrendilek, 2004).
The essential oils extracted from the seeds of F. vulgare have also beenshown to possess antibacterial activity against human pathogenic bacteria (Ruberto et al., 2000; Singh et al.,2002; Aridogan et al., 2002).
Aqueous and organic extracts of fennel have demonstrated moderate antibacterial activity (Kaur and Arora, 2008; 2009).
Hydroethanol extract of F. vulgare has shown inhibition of Campylobacter jejuni and H. pylori (Mahady et al., 2005;Cwikla et al., 2009).
In another study using forty eight isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii carried out by Jazaniet al. (2009), fennel essential oil has shown the potential for the control of multi-drug resistant A. baumannii infections.
Fennel essential oils may be used as natural bactericides for the control of phytopathogenic and mycopathogenic bacteria responsible for cultivated mushroom diseases (Lo-Cantore et al., 2004).
Dillapional, a phenylpropanoid derivative, was found to be an antimicrobial principle of the stems of F. vulgare. A coumarin derivative,scopoletin has also been isolated as marginally
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fennel
source: Bioactive potential of Anethum graveolens, Foeniculum vulgare and Trachyspermum ammi belonging to the family Umbelliferae – Current status by Gurinder Jeet Kaur and Daljit Singh Arora*-Journal of Medicinal Plants Research Vol. 4(2), pp. 087-094, 18 January, 2010 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/JMPR
ISSN 1996-0875© 2010 Academic Journals
