_Semen Badiana_[93]; _Star-Anise_; F. _Badiane_, _Anis étoilé_; G.
_Sternanis_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Illicium anisatum_ Loureiro (_I. religiosum_
Sieb.). A small tree, 20 to 25 feet high, native of the south-western
provinces of China; introduced at an early period into Japan by the
Buddhists and planted about their temples.
Kämpfer in his travels in Japan, in 1690-1692, discovered and figured a
tree called _Somo_ or _Skimmi_[94] which subsequent authors assumed to
be the source of the drug Star-anise. The tree was also found in Japan
by Thunberg[95] who remarked that its capsules are not so aromatic as
those found in trade. Von Siebold in 1825 noticed the same fact, in
consequence of which he regarded the tree as distinct from that of
Loureiro, naming it _Illicium Japonicum_, a name he changed in 1837
to _I. religiosum_. Baillon,[96] while admitting certain differences
between the fruits of the Chinese and Japanese trees, holds them to
constitute but one species, and the same view is taken by Miquel.[97]
[93] From the Arabic _Bádiyán fennel_.
[94] _Amœnitates_, 1712. 880.
[95] _Flora Japonica_, 1784. 235.
[96] _Adansonia_, vHist. des Plantes, Magnoliacées_, 1868. 154.
[97] _Ann. Mus. Bot._ Lugdun. Batav. ii. (1865-1866). 257.
The star-anise of commerce is produced in altitudes of 2500 metres in
the north-western parts of the province of Yunnan in South-western
China where the tree, which attains a height of 12 to 15 feet, grows in
abundance.[98] The fruits of the Japanese variety of the tree are not
collected, and the Chinese drug alone is in use even in Japan.
=History=—Notwithstanding its striking appearance, there is no evidence
that star-anise found its way to Europe like other Eastern spices
during the middle ages. Concerning its ancient use in China, the only
fact we have found recorded is, that during the Sung dynasty, A.D.
970-1127, star-anise was levied as tribute in the southern part of
Kien-chow, now Yen-ping-fu, in Fokien.[99]
Star-anise was brought to England from the Philippines by the
voyager Candish, about A.D. 1588. Clusius obtained it in London from
the apothecary Morgan and the druggist Garet, and described it in
1601.[100] The drug appears to have been rare in the time of Pomet,
who states (1694) that the Dutch use it to flavour their beverages of
tea and “sorbec.”[101] In those times it was brought to Europe by way
of Russia, and was thence called _Cardamomum Siberiense_, or _Annis de
Sibérie_.
=Description=—The fruit of _Illicium anisatum_ is formed of 8
one-seeded carpels, originally upright, but afterwards spread into
a radiate whorl and united in a single row round a short central
column which proceeds from an oblique pedicel. When ripe they are
woody and split longitudinally at the upturned ventral suture, so
that the shining seed becomes visible. This seed, which is elliptical
and somewhat flattened, stands erect in the carpel; it is truncated
on the side adjoining the central column, and is there attached by
an obliquely-rising funicle. The upper edge of the seed is keeled,
the lower rounded. The boat-shaped carpels, to the number of 8, are
attached to the column through their whole height, but adhere to each
other only slightly at the base; the upper or split side of each carpel
occupies a nearly horizontal position. The carpels are irregularly
wrinkled, especially below, and are more or less beaked at the apex;
their colour is a rusty brown. Internally they are of a brighter
colour, smooth, and with a cavity in the lower half corresponding to
the shape of the seed. The cavity is formed of a separate wall, ½
millim. thick, which, as well as the testa of the seed, distinctly
exhibits a radiate structure. The small embryo lies next the hilum in
the soft albumen, which is covered by a dark brown endopleura. The
seed, which is not much aromatic, amounts to about one-fifth of the
entire weight of the fruit.
[98] Thorel, _Notes Médicales du voyage d’exploration du Mékong et
de Cochinchine_, Paris, 1870. 31.—Garnier, _Voyage d’exploration en
Indo-Chine II._ (Paris, 1873) 439.—Rondot, _Etude pratique du commerce
d’exportation de la Chine_, 1848. 11.
[99] Bretschneider in (Foochow) _Chinese Recorder_, Jan., 1871, 220,
reprinted in his “Study and Value of Chinese Botanical Works,” Foochow,
1872, 13.—See also Hirth du Frênes, in _New Remedies_, New York, 1877,
181.
[100] _Rarior. Plant. Hist._ 202.
[101] _Hist. des Drog._ pt. i. liv. i. 43.
Star-anise has an agreeable aromatic taste and smell, more resembling
fennel than anise, on which account it was at first designated
_Fœniculum Sinense_.[102] When pulverised, it has a subacid after-taste.
=Microscopic Structure=—The carpels consist of an external, loose,
dark brown layer and a thick inner wall, separated by fibro-vascular
bundles. The outer layer exhibits numerous large cells, containing
pale yellow volatile oil. The inner wall of the carpels consists of
woody prosenchyme in those parts which are exterior to the seed cavity,
and especially in the shining walls laid bare by the splitting of the
ventral suture. The inner surface of the carpel is entirely composed
of sclerenchyme. A totally different structure is exhibited by this
stony shell where it lines the cavity occupied by the seed. Here it
is composed of a single row of cells, consisting of straight tubes
exactly parallel to one another, more than 500 mkm. long, and 70
mkm. in diameter, placed vertically to the seed cavity; their porous
walls, marked with fine spiral striations, display splendid colours in
polarized light. The seed contains albumen and drops of fat. Starch is
wanting in star-anise, except a little in the fruit-stalk.
=Chemical Composition=—The volatile oil amounts to four or five per
cent. Its composition is that of the oils of fennel or anise. We
observed that oil of star-anise, as distilled by one of us, continued
fluid below 8° C. It solidified at that temperature as soon as a
crystal of anethol (see our article on Fructus Anisi) was brought in
contact with the oil. The crystallized mass began to melt again at
16° C. The oils of anise and star-anise possess no striking optical
differences, both deviating very little to the left. We are unable
to give any chemical characters by which they can be discriminated,
although they are distinguished by dealers; the oil of star-anise
imparts a somewhat different flavour, for instance, to drinks than that
produced by anise oil.
Star-anise is rich in sugar, which seems to be cane-sugar inasmuch as
it does not reduce alkaline cupric tartrate. An aqueous extract of the
fruit assumes, on addition of alcohol, the form of a clear mucilaginous
jelly, of which pectin is probably a constituent. The seeds contain a
large quantity of fixed oil.
=Commerce=—Star-anise is shipped to Europe and India from China. In
1872 Shanghai imported, mostly by way of Hong Kong 5273 peculs (703,066
lb.), a large proportion of which was re-shipped to other ports of
China.[103] According to Rondot (_l. c._) the best is first brought by
junks from Fokien to Canton, being exported from Tsiouen-tchou-fou.
A little is also collected in Kiangsi and Kuang-tung. The same drug,
under the name of _Bādiyāne-khatāi_ (i.e. _Chinese fennel_), is carried
by inland trade from China to Yarkand and thence to India, where it is
much esteemed.
=Uses=—Star-anise is employed to flavour spirits, the principal
consumption being in Germany, France, and Italy. It is not used in
medicine at least in England, except in the form of essential oil,
which is often sold for oil of aniseed.
[102] Redi, _Experimenta_, Amstelod. 1675, p. 172.
[103] _Returns of Trade at the Treaty Ports in China for 1872_, 4-8.