Foeniculum Vulgare and Fennel Essential Oil Fennel

Foeniculum Vulgare and Fennel Essential Oil

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.var. vulgare) is a herbaceous plant that grows yearly with seeds that are beneficial to humans. They are commonly used as medicine both as homemade remedies as well as in the pharmaceutical industry. They indicate that the Foeniculum vulgare seeds secrete certain yellowish or sometimes clear oil that is used in the production of perfumery drinks through carminative and stimulant action. In addition the other parts of the plant such as the steams, leaves and flowers also produce essential oils that attract commercial interest. The paper reviews literature that point at fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) and fennel essential oil's history, cultivation and production uses and mainly medicinal uses especially for conditions that include the eyes, diabetes and intestinal tract.

Discussion

Stefanini et al., in their article Essential oil constituents of different organs of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare var. vulgare), explain of an experiment they carried out at farm of the Agronomical Sciences College in Botucatu, Brazil. In this experiment the method of statistics was randomized block that included 3 replications and 7 treatments that were of different harvest periods. The seeds were sown in January's hot season and harvested every 14 days for 14 harvests. Analysis of the data indicated a high value of trans-anethole (78.25%) in the dry seeds during the hot periods, limonene was (42.30%) in the spring specifically in the stems and leaves while fenchone was (16.98%) in the green seeds in autumn.

Nemeth, (2005) on the other hand in the article Changes in Essential Oil Quantity and Quality Influenced by Ontogenetic Factors, makes the link between the developmental stage and the quantity as well as the quality of essential oil. This investigation was done in Asteraceae, Lamiaceae and Apiaceae plant families. This investigation, revealed a continuous decrease of quantity as well as the quality of essential oil during ontogenesis in Tanacetum vulgare. In addition, the accumulation pattern revealed an optimum curve in Mentha piperita, Hyssopus officinalis, Majorana hortensis, with the highest bound indicated at the flowering stage. In the case of Foeniculum vulgare, in the pattern of accumulation reveals parallel optimum curves in vegetative and generative parts with the highest points at various times and levels

Bowes and Zheljazkov1 (2005), conducted both field and laboratory experiments in 2 sites between 2001 and 2002 to evaluate the possibilities of succesfully growing Foeniculum vulgare Mill as a source of essential oil in the Canadian Maritime area. In this experiment published in an article Essential Oil Yields and Quality of Fennel Grown in Nova Scotia they evaluated 3 cultivars Shumen, Berfena, and Sweet Fennel in regard to 2 seeding dates in May and June months of Nova Scotia. These oils yields and composition were then compared to those commercially found in the United States. It was evident from the experiment that Shumen produced the highest herbage yields and more so from the earlier seeding time. Sweet Fennel was shown to produce the lowest content of essential oil with the major component being anethole ranging between 47 to 80%. The study also revealed that essential oils comprise of other components such as "methyl chavicol, fenchone, ?-phellandrene, ?-pinene, ortho cymene, ?-phellandrene, fenchyl acetate, ?-pinene, and apiole"(Bowes & Zheljazkov1, 2005). However the composition of this ingredient was unique to each cultivar. Analysis of the data also revealed that the oil composition was the same as that of commercially purchased oil and even satisfied the industry requirements of oil composition. This pointed at the fact that there is a high likelihood of growing Foeniculum vulgare as an essential oil crop in Nova Scotia.

2011) in their article Chemical Composition, Antimicrobial and Antioxidant

Activities of Essential Oils from Organically Cultivated Fennel Cultivars explain of an experiment they conducted to examine the essential oils of three types of Egyptian fennel including Foeniculum vulgare var. azoricum, Foeniculum vulgare var. dulce and Foeniculum vulgare var. vulgare). The aim of this experiment was to examine the chemical composition of the fennels as well as their antimicrobial and antioxidant activities. They applied gas chromatography spectrometry analysis of their oils to determine and evaluate 18 major monoterpenoids in the three plants and the results revealed that their percentages were greatly different. All the fennels exhibited high content of trans-Anethole, estragole, fenchone and limonene, in addition, on evaluation of their oils antioxidant activities, they applied there techniques namely DPPH radical scavenging, lipid peroxidation and metal chelating assays and the analysis revealed that their antimicrobial activities were similar. Their oils effectiveness was measured "against two species of fungi, two species of Gram negative and two species of Gram positive bacteria and this revealed the plants as highly effective in these activities"(Shahat, et al., 2011). The study's major finding was that the higher the level of trans-anethole and estragole, the more effective they were in their antioxidant activity.

Similarly, Cantore et al., (2004) in their study extracted essential oils from Coriandrum sativum L. And Foeniculum vulgare Miller var. vulgare (Miller) fruits. Their aim was to establish an in vitro assay for antibacterial activity. Their focus was on two agents, Escherichia coli and Bacillus megaterium, bacteria that are commonly applied in antimicrobial assays comparisons as well as 27 phytopathogenic bacterial species and two mycopathogenic ones that are known to cause cultivated mushroom diseases. The experiment adopted the agar diffusion method in which revealed that essential oils have a significant antibacterial activity and are useful natural bactericides for the control of bacterial various diseases.

Abou El-Soud et al. (2011), conducted an experiment illustrated in an article Antidiabetic Activities of Foeniculum Vulgare Mill. Essential Oil in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats. In this experiment they acknowledge Foeniculum vulgare Mill as an important age old herb that the Egyptians and Greeks used as carminatives, diuretics and lactation stimulants. In this experiment they aimed to assess Foeniculum vulgare Mill's essential oil in regard to its hypoglycaemic effect and antioxidant benefits. In the experiment, they used rats in which they divided into 3 groups namely normal control, diabetic control, and diabetic group. All the groups were given 30 mg/kg of Foeniculum vulgare Mill's essential oil and this dose was determined by its LD50. They measured Serum glucose as well as whole blood glutathione peroxidase of the rodents in addition to performing a histopathological inquiry of the kidneys and pancreas. The results suggested that when the diabetic rodents ingested Foeniculum vulgare Mill's essential oils, hyperglycemia was rectified from "(162.5 ± 3.19 mg/dl) to (81.97 ± 1.97 mg/dl) with p

Tanira et al., (1996) in a study published in Phytotherapy Research, extracted ethanol from a dried ripe fruit of Foeniculum vulgare. The study involved "male Wistar rats (2W250 g) and Swiss albino mice (25-28 g) that were fed on standard pellet diet and water"(Tanira, Shah, Mohsin, Ageel, & Qureshi, 1996) and were at least 5 rats in each group. They then prepared the extract in a Soxhlet apparatus with 95% ethanol. This was then heated at low temperatures and under limited pressure in a rotavapor to cause evaporation. What remained was then mixed in saline (10 mUkg) to dissolve prior to being administered. This extract (500 mg/kg) was then subjected to tests in order to indentify its diuretic, analgesic, antipyretic, antimicrobial, cytotoxic activities as well as its impact on bile secretion in rodents, by doing this it was given to the rats. In addition, they also examined acute toxicity after0.5, 1 and 3 gkg in mice. The analysis revealed that the extract of ripe fruit of Foeniculum vulgare "contained active ingredients such as diuretic, analgesic, antipyretic, antibacterial as well as mitodepressive agents"(Tanira, Shah, Mohsin, Ageel, & Qureshi, 1996). These also contribute to enhanced flow of bile. These activities were observed after the administration of a single dose of crude extract to the rodents (500mglkg). The administered extract was on the upper limits of the dosage. Therefore, the extract had diuretic, analgesic, antipyretic properties. When observed for its antimicrobial properties, the extract was seen to inhibit the development of Staphylococcus aweus and Bacillus subtilis and this was indicated as its mitodepressive property as already mentioned. The extract caused no deaths when given acutely to the mice despite the fact that it showed piloerection as well as depressing locomotor functions.

Tognolini et al., (2007) in this study sort to examine anethole as the major component of Foeniculum vulgare and its antiplatelet properties as well as its ability to inhibit the retraction of the coagulum. They acknowledged the fact that there has been previous work on Foeniculum vulgare's essential oils for their antiplatelet properties. In their study, they assessed anethole in guinea pig plasma and the results indicated that the ingredient was potent in stopping "arachidonic acid-, collagen-, ADP- and U46619-induced aggregation (IC50 from 4 to 147 _gml?1)"(Tognolini, Ballabeni, Bertoni, Bruni, Impicciatore, & Barocelli, 2007). The results also revealed that the ingredient prohibited thrombin-induced clot retraction at the same levels as fennel oil. In comparison, essential oil and anethole when examined in the animals' aorta showed similar "NO-independent vasorelaxant activity at antiplatelet concentrations"(Tognolini, Ballabeni, Bertoni, Bruni, Impicciatore, & Barocelli, 2007) and had to undergo test to ascertain lack of cytotoxic effects in vitro. However, In vivo, both the tested substances ( F. vulgare essential oil and anethole) when given to the animals orally in a less acute treatment of (30 mg kg?1 day?1 for 5 days) revealed that there was substantial antithrombotic function that was able to stop "paralysis induced by collagen-epinephrine intravenous injection (70% and 83% protection, respectively)" (Tognolini, Ballabeni, Bertoni, Bruni, Impicciatore, & Barocelli, 2007). The experiment also showed that at the antithrombotic dosage the animals did not indicate any prohemorrhagic side effect at variance with acetylsalicylic acid which was herein used as reference drug. In addition, both substances were shown to give significant protection in the rodents that had ethanol induced gastric lesions. The results can be concluded to demonstrate that both F. vulgare essential oil, and its main ingredient anethole, have safe antithrombotic functions as a result of their broad spectrum antiplatelet impact, clot removing as well as their vasorelaxant actions.