Star Anise

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Star Anise

 

or true anise (Illicium verum), a plant of the family Illiaceae (formerly classified in the family Mag-noliaceae). The tree reaches a height of 10 m and has leathery evergreen leaves. It grows in Indochina, southern China, and other parts of Southeast Asia. The flowers are bisexual, polypetalous, and single. The fruits are cyclical and mul-tileaved, containing an essential oil with a composition close to that of anise oil and containing up to 90 percent anethole. This oil is used in medicine, in liqueur and vodka distillation, and in the food industry. Another species of anise, Illicium anisatum (I. religiosum)—the so-called shikimi—grows and is often cultivated in Japan, Korea, and China. It has extremely poisonous fruit containing the alkaloid skimmianine which does not differ from the fruit of the true anise. Several other representatives of the genus lllicium (which has 42 species in all) have local importance as a source of essential oils.

REFERENCE

Uphof, J. C. T. Dictionary of Economic Plants, 2nd ed. New York-London, 1968.

M. E. KIRPICHNIKOV

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.