Common fennel – wild fennel (harvesting and storage)

– wild fennel; folk names – hairy krip, licorice kpip.

 

Umbelliferae family – Apiaceae (Umbelliferae).

The fruits are used for medicinal purposes.

Occurs occasionally in the wild in the Crimea. Grows on mountain slopes, within roads, among bushes, in settlements. Cultivated in the Crimea and the southwestern steppe regions of Ukraine.

Fennel ordinary– 2-year-old or perennial (wild) herbaceous plant with a spindle-like rod, slightly branched, yellowish-white root. Stem erect, up to 2 m high, strongly branched, rounded, finely ribbed. Leaves alternate in outline ovate-triangular, 3-4-pinnately dissected into long filiform lobes; the lower leaves are large, petiolate, subsequently sessile with membranous sheaths 3-6 cm long. Stems and leaves are dark green with a bluish bloom. Inflorescence -a complex umbrella up to 15 cm in diameter with 15-20 unequal bare rays. The flowers are small with yellow petals. Pistil with 2-celled ovary and two styles. The fruits are smooth, cylindrical, 4-10 mm long and 2-4 mm wide, with remnants of a five-toothed calyx, a pistillate disc, and 2 columns. They break up into single-seeded semi-fruits, which have five light strongly protruding ribs. The whole plant, especially the fruit, has an aromatic smell.

Blooms in July – August. The fruits ripen in September-October.

Fennel should be distinguished from the more widely cultivated dill (Anetum graveolens L.), the admixture of fruits of which is not allowed in raw materials.

They do not ripen at the same time, they are harvested, like other umbrella plants.

According to GF-X Art. 290 raw material consists of whole fruits or broken into semi-fruits, flat inside and convex outside, with wider lateral ribs. The smell is fragrant, intensifies when rubbed. The taste is sweet and spicy.

Not more than (percent) is allowed in raw materials: crushed and unripe fruits – 1, fragrant fruits of other plants – 1, other parts of fennel and non-scented vegetable fruits – 0.6, mineral impurities and crushed parts (passing through a sieve with a hole diameter of 1 mm) – 0.5. The content of essential oil should be less than 3%, moisture not higher than 14%.

Packed in bags of 50 kg. Stored in dry, well-ventilated rooms on pallets or racks in the group of essential oil raw materials. Storage period up to three years.

The fruits contain up to 6.5% essential oil (the main component is alcohol anethole – within 60%), also fenchone, methylchavicol, anisic aldehyde and anisic acid. Essential oil is obtained from the fruits, from which dill water is prepared, used as an antispasmodic for gastrointestinal diseases and expectorant (anethole) for dry cough and bronchitis. The fruits are part of the laxative, sedative, carminative, chest and choleretic fees.

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