SC - Fennel Per Gernot Katzer
Nick Sasso
grizly at mindspring.com
Thu Jul 20 21:13:26 PDT 2000
Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare
Mill.)
Synonyms
pharm
Fructus Foeniculi
Amharic
Insilal
Assami
Guamoori
Bengali
Mouri, Sulpha
Burmese
Samong-saba
Chinese
Wooi heung, Hui xiang
Dutch
Venkel
English
Sweet cumin
Esperanto
Fenkolo
Estonian
Harilik apteegitill
Finnish
Venkoli
French
Fenouil, Aneth doux
Gaelic
Lus an t'saiodh
German
Fenchel
Gujrati
Wariari
Hebrew
Shumar
Hindi
Saunf, Moti saunf
Hungarian
Édeskömény
Icelandic
Fennika
Indonesian
Jinten manis, Adas
Italian
Finocchio
Kannada
Badisopu
Malay
Jintan manis, Adas
Marathi
Badisep, Shoap
Norwegian
Fennikel
Oriya
Pan mohuri
Polish
Fenkul wloski, Koper wloski
Portuguese
Funcho
Punjabi
Saunf
Russian
Sladkiy ukrop, Fenkhel, Aptechniy ukrop
Sanskrit
Madhurika, Shatpushpa
Singhalese
Maduru
Spanish
Hinojo
Swahili
Shamari
Swedish
Fänkål
Tamil
Sohikirai
Telugu
Peddajilakaramu, Somp
Thai
Yira
Turkish
Rezene
Urdu
Sonf
Used plant part
Fruits. Other than most of their relatives, they retain a green
colour after drying.
As a rule of thumb, a bright green colour indicates a good quality.
The leaves and stalks are occasionally eaten as a vegetable.
Plant family
Apiaceae (parsley family).
Sensoric quality
Sweet and aromatic, similar to anis. For other sweet spices, see
licorice.
Main constituents
The contents of essential varies strongly (0.6 to 6%); fruits in
the center of a
umbel are generally greater, more green and stronger in fragrance.
Time of
harvest and climate are also important.
The essential oil of the most important fennel variety (var. dulce)
contains
anethol (50 to 80%), limonene (5%), fenchone (5%), estragol
(methyl-chavicol), safrol, alpha-pinene (0.5%), camphene,
beta-pinene,
beta-myrcene and p-cymen. In contrast, the uncultivated form (var.
vulgare)
contains often more essential oil, but since it is characterized by
the bitter
fenchone (12 to 22%), it is of little value.
Origin
Mediterranean.
Note
In large parts of Asia, fennel and anis given the same name (see
below).
Etymology
The genus name foeniculum (Latin for "little hay") probably refers
to the aroma
of fennel and is the source of the name of fennel in many
contemporary
European languages.
In the Hindi tongue, anis and fennel are often synonymously caalled
saunf,
although only fennel is a traditional spice of the region. To make
a clear
distiction between the both, fennel may also be called moti saunf
"thick fennel",
because its fruits are somewhat larger.
The Indonesian name jintan manis "sweet cumin" (also applied to
anis) reflects
the much greater importance of cumin, of which fennel is thought to
be a
variety, in Indonesian cuisine. Analogous formations are French
aneth doux or
Russian sladkiy ukrop "sweet dill". All these spices (anis, cumin,
dill and also
caraway) belong to the same plant family (Apiaceae) and, in varying
degree,
resemble each other in shape and fragrance. See also cicely.
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