What is Anise?

Anise is the dried seed of Pimpinella anisum, a small plant in the carrot family. It tastes sweet and sharp, much like liquorice. People use it as a spice, as a tea, and as a flavour in sweets and drinks.

In European folk use it was taken for wind, bloating, colic and cough. Long use is not proof that a remedy works, and it is not proof that it is safe. Both have to be checked on their own.

The honest verdict on anise: human evidence is thin. A few small trials hint at help for gut upset and for hot flushes. None are big enough or repeated enough to settle the matter.

As a kitchen spice, anise is safe for most people. The concentrated essential oil is a different thing, and it needs real care. Anise is also easy to mix up with star anise, which comes from a quite different plant.

How does Anise work?

Most of the proposed action is credited to anethole, the oil that gives anise its smell and taste.

In test tubes and in animals, anethole relaxes the smooth muscle of the gut. That may be behind the old use for cramps and trapped wind. Whether it does the same in your body is not established.

In cell and animal studies, anethole also acts a little like oestrogen, the main female hormone. This is lab work, not proof of a hormone effect in people. It is still the reason to be careful if you have a hormone-driven illness.

Anise is often called a cough loosener. That idea rests on tradition and on lab work. Good human trials for cough are missing.

In a few small human trials, anise seed powder lowered blood sugar and blood fats. The trials were small and short, so this is a hint, not a finding you can count on.

What forms does Anise come in?

Anise reaches you in several forms. They are not equal in strength.

- Whole seed: chewed after meals, or brewed as tea. - Ground seed: used in baking and spice blends. - Anise tea bags: sold alone or mixed with fennel and caraway.

- Tincture or fluid extract: alcohol-based drops. - Essential oil: very concentrated, sold for flavouring and aroma, and sometimes misused by the spoonful. - Coated oil capsules: used in a few European gut products, often with peppermint or caraway oil.

- Lozenges and cough syrups: anise oil as a flavour and claimed soother. - Spirits such as ouzo, pastis, sambuca and raki: food and drink, not medicine.

The gap between a cup of tea and the pure oil is huge. One millilitre of oil holds far more anethole than a mug of tea.

Star anise (Illicium verum) and fennel taste similar but come from other plants. Products often blend them. Check the label if you need to know what you are taking.

Where it comes from:

Anise was grown in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, and Roman writers named it as a stomach remedy.

Roman cooks baked a spiced cake, mustaceum, served after heavy meals to settle the stomach. Pliny praised the seed for breath and digestion. Anise moved north with Roman trade and stayed.

In medieval Europe anise was a garden staple. Charlemagne's farm orders listed it for the royal estates. Monastery gardens grew it, and apothecaries sold it for wind, colic and cough.

European folk practice used anise tea for bloating and for noisy infant colic. Nursing mothers drank it in the belief that it raised milk flow. Village cough syrups leaned on it for taste as much as for effect.

It also became a sweet and a drink. Aniseed balls, springerle biscuits and the clear spirits of the Mediterranean all carry the same flavour. That food use is the main reason the plant is still common today.

What does Anise help with?

• Gas, bloating and stomach cramps: This is the oldest and most common use of anise tea in Europe. In lab and animal work, anethole relaxes gut muscle and eases spasm. That fits the folk use well. Human trials of anise alone for simple bloating are few and small. Most people who find it helps notice within an hour. If it does nothing for you after a few tries, it likely will not.
• Indigestion after meals: Anise is one of several seeds chewed or brewed after eating in southern Europe. Some European herbal products combine anise with fennel, caraway and peppermint oil for this purpose. Trials of those blends show modest relief of upper belly discomfort. Which part of the blend does the work is not clear. Evidence for anise on its own is weak.
• Irritable bowel syndrome: This is the use with the best, though still limited, human data. A small trial of coated anise oil capsules reported less pain and better quality of life over four weeks. Group sizes were small and the work has not been widely repeated. IBS also responds strongly to placebo in trials. That makes small studies hard to trust. Treat this as promising, not proven.
• Constipation: A herbal mix containing anise has been tested as a mild laxative in older adults. In one small trial, a multi-herb preparation with anise increased stool frequency over a few days. Anise was not the only active plant in it. There is no good trial of anise seed alone for constipation. Strong anise tea may loosen stools in some people, but that is anecdote.
• Hot flushes at menopause: Small trials from Iran reported fewer and milder hot flushes with anise seed capsules over four weeks. The studies were small, short and from one region. They have not been confirmed by larger or independent work. The suspected reason is the oestrogen-like action seen in lab studies. That same possible action is why anise is not suitable for everyone, including people with hormone-sensitive cancer.
• Period pain: Anise appears in a tested combination product, not as a solo remedy. A herbal capsule of saffron, celery seed and anise reduced period pain in small trials, and compared well with a painkiller in one of them. The share of the effect from anise is unknown. Anise tea alone has not been properly tested for period pain.
• Cough and tickly throat: Anise has been a cough syrup flavour and folk remedy for centuries. It is still listed in some European herbal registers as a traditional remedy for coughs with phlegm. Those listings rest on long use, not on trial results. No good human trial shows that anise clears a cough faster. A warm sweet drink may soothe the throat on its own.

Which foods are rich in Anise?

1. Aniseed bread and rolls
2. Springerle and pfeffernusse biscuits
3. Aniseed balls and liquorice sweets
4. Indian mukhwas (after-meal seed mix)
5. Ouzo, pastis, sambuca and raki
6. Spice blends such as five spice (usually star anise, not true anise)

Practical Tips:

Anise is a food first. Most people meet it in bread, biscuits, sweets and spirits.

Food amounts are small and pose little risk outside allergy. Spirits bring their own alcohol risk, so they are not a way to take a herb.

Star anise and fennel taste similar and are often swapped in recipes. They are different plants with different safety notes.

What are the side effects of Anise?

• Allergic rash, itching or swelling, more likely if you react to other carrot-family plants
• Contact dermatitis (skin rash) from handling the essential oil
• Mouth or lip irritation from strong oil or sweets
• Nausea or stomach upset from strong preparations
• Loose stools from very strong tea
• Rare asthma flare in people allergic to the plant or its dust
• Vomiting, drowsiness, fits and lung harm after swallowing the essential oil
• Skin reaction to sunlight, rarely reported with the oil

Good to know:

Anise used as a food or a normal cup of tea causes few problems for most people.

Allergy is the main everyday risk. It is more likely if you already react to fennel, celery, carrot, dill, coriander or mugwort pollen.

The serious reports almost all involve the essential oil swallowed in quantity, or given to a child. That is poisoning, not a side effect of tea.

How much Anise should you take?

• Recommended daily: Labels on anise tea and seed products usually suggest 1 to 3 grams of crushed seed per cup, taken up to three times a day. That works out at about 3 to 5 grams of seed daily at most. Essential oil products carry much smaller numbers, often 0.1 to 0.3 millilitres a day, and only in prepared forms. The pure oil is not meant to be swallowed by the spoon or drop at home. These are the figures found on packs. They are not advice for you. Your own amount depends on your health, your medicines and your age, so ask a pharmacist or doctor.
• Best time of day: No time of day works better in any proven way. For wind and fullness, the old habit was a cup after a meal. For a night-time cough, people took it in the evening. Pick what fits your symptom.
• With or without food: Food makes no clear difference. For indigestion and wind, tea after a meal is the usual pattern, and chewed seeds after eating are a common habit. If the tea upsets your stomach, take it with food.
• Time to effect: For gas or cramps, people who respond usually notice within about an hour of a cup. In the hot flush trials, changes showed after two to four weeks of daily use. It may do nothing at all for you. If three or four tries bring no change, it is reasonable to stop.
• How long to take it: Anise as a kitchen spice can be eaten daily with no set limit. Medicine-strength use is normally short. Trials ran two to four weeks, and traditional use was a few days at a time for a passing problem. Long, heavy use of concentrated anise oil is not advised, because of the estragole content. If your symptom lasts more than two weeks, see a doctor instead of adding more weeks of anise.