Fennel fruits: useful properties, contraindications, application features

Fennel is a spicy-aromatic plant, a species of the genus Fennel, and the family - Umbelliferae. Another popular name - dill pharmacy and Voloshsky. His popularity was great in ancient Greece and the Romans, who assumed that the smell of fennel makes a person strong, can drive away evil spirits and destroy fleas, and also to refresh the air.

Fennel fruits have a sweetish taste and a pleasant smell. The seeds are small, oval, the color is greenish-brown. Puritans very often chewed them during meetings, calling fennel "a seed of meetings".

Fennel: description

Fennel is a perennial herbaceous plant. Height - from 90 to 200 cm. In appearance it resembles dill, but to taste and aroma it looks like anise, only more sweet.

Stalk of fennel is straight, branched with a blue bloom. Leaves pinnate with filiform lobules. Flowers are placed at the very top, like complex flat umbrellas. The flowering time of the plant falls on July-August. It begins to bear fruit from the end of summer.
Fruit is a naked, almost cylindrical, two-parted granule that breaks into two half-fruits, the length of which is 4-10 mm, and the width is 3 mm. The color of fennel seeds is greenish-brown. The smell is specific, strong.

What is rich in fennel?

A synonym for dill medicine. In the fruit there is a large amount of essential oil (3-6%), in which up to 60% of anethole and proteins. Fatty oil consists of petroselin (60%), oleic (22%) and other acids.

The herb of fennel is rich in glycosides, it contains ascorbic acid, carotene, minerals and B vitamins.

Fennel fruits : useful properties and contraindications

Thanks to such elements as magnesium, potassium, calcium, iron and others, the plant has a variety of useful properties. It can act as a diuretic. Grass, fennel fruits are capable of carrying out disinfecting and spasmolytic function. These properties during treatment are so soft that drugs from dill pharmacy prescribed even to infants with flatulence. The dose for the youngest children should be prescribed by a doctor.

Fennel fruits are a good expectorant. They have the property of beneficially acting on the nervous system, soothing it during a strong overstrain and aggressive behavior. Reviews of this gift of nature from folk healers, doctors and ordinary people are only positive, but provided the proper application of the plant.

Application in official medicine

Official medicine often uses funds that include fennel. This includes tinctures and therapeutic teas, which have proven themselves on the good side in the following cases:

• In the treatment of respiratory diseases;
• For normalization of digestion;
• For the treatment of heart and vascular diseases;
• To improve the taste of other medicines.

Grass, fennel fruits are an antibacterial agent. "Dill Vodicka" has long been known to women, they gave it to babies with spastic colitis and flatulence. Such water can increase the secretion of glands and regulate motor function of the intestine.

Official medicine includes in the anti-asthmatic collections fruits of fennel, the useful properties of which are very noticeable in them. From the seeds of fennel, the drug "Anetin" is obtained, where the entire amount of useful substances of the plant is used. The drug is widely used in therapy for the treatment of heart failure, spastic colitis.

Features of the application of fennel fruits in folk medicine

Still Hippocrates and Avicenna recognized the medicinal properties of dill pharmacy. Fennel fruits , the use of which is found in homeopathy and partly in official medicine, is now also highly valued by folk medicine. The strength of this plant is in demand in different cases.

Fennel is good for bloating, during menstrual pain, for inflammatory processes of the eyes, for the treatment of diseases of the liver and bile ducts, as an antispasmodic agent in the treatment of asthmatic attacks and whooping cough, and headache on the basis of poor digestion.

You can defeat neurasthenia if you bathe with a broom from fennel or use this plant in the form of infusion.

Folk recipes of medicines from fennel

Most often in the practice of traditional medicine for the preparation of medicinal preparations are taken fruits of fennel, the use of which is very common. It's easiest to make an infusion at home. This is 2 teaspoons of chopped raw material, filled with a glass of boiling water and infused for 10 minutes. The filtered medicinal preparation is taken in a warm form 50-100 ml three times a day before meals. It is a very good carminative agent. Similarly prepared infusion, only from half a liter of water and a tablespoon of fennel, well established itself in the treatment of respiratory diseases.

Here are some other recipes of traditional medicine. For the treatment of indigestion, a mixture of medicinal plants is prepared: fruits of fennel and caraway seeds - 10 grams, peppermint, scallop flowers and lemon balm - 20 grams, angelica roots - 15 g, sage wormwood - 5 g. All the ingredients must be crushed and mixed , Then a teaspoon of the mixture to brew a cup of boiling water. Drink three to four cups a day. You need to take it until you recover completely.

A recipe for improving lactation in nursing women. Grind:

• Fennel fruits;
• Incipient seeds of barley;
• The entire aboveground part of the oats;
• Hops (cones);
• Galleon (flowers);
• Fenugreek hay (seeds);
• dill;
• anise;
• caraway.

Everything is taken in equal parts. Two tablespoons of the mixture to brew 0.5 liters of boiling water. For effective exposure, you need to drink about 1.5 liters of infusion per day.

Prescription of a remedy to relieve spasms. A teaspoon of medicinal mixture consisting of fennel seeds, anise, linden and poppy flowers, taken in equal parts, pour a glass of boiling water. Strain after 10 minutes and drink for a day, adding honey.

Fennel for weight loss

It has been used for weight loss since the time of Hippocrates. Especially valuable are the fruits of fennel. This plant has many qualities, due to which it is considered indispensable during weight loss. Fennel helps calm hunger, reduces addiction to sweets, speeds up metabolism. To overcome the increased appetite, it is necessary simply to chew seeds of a plant - and the desire to recede from a diet at once will be gone.

To get rid of extra pounds is very useful tea, which includes fennel (fruits). Instructions for cooking and use are as follows. Two teaspoons of nettle and one teaspoon of fennel fruits pour 750 ml of steep boiling water, hold on a small fire for 15 minutes and another 15 minutes to insist under the lid. One glass of this decoction to drink during the day for four meals, drink before eating.

Next recipe. Fennel fruits, mint leaves, linden and chamomile flowers to grind, mix. A teaspoon of medicinal mixture pour a glass (200 ml) of boiling water and insist 20 minutes. Drink the infusion at once. You need to do this for a week. This remedy will help you feel better during a diet, calm your nerves and reduce your appetite.

From the reception itself fennel will not be able to lose weight, he will only be able to be an assistant during diets, relieve from excessive appetite and wake up the asleep metabolism.

How is fennel used in cooking?

Fennel is valuable not only as a medicine, but also as a spice, capable of giving dishes a unique, special taste and a specific flavor. Fennel is appreciated in the culinary world. Drug dill is added to soup, salads, snacks, and cooked from it self-sufficient meals. During harvesting, fennel seeds are dried, ground, then used as a seasoning for fish and meat. From them, you get a delicious tea.

Green fennel fruits are also suitable. They are added to veal, lamb and fish dishes.

Fennel fruit: contraindications

The main contraindication is fenkel intolerance and hypersensitivity, when a person can only have dizziness and nausea from the smell of the plant.

Excessive use of fennel to people with epilepsy is very dangerous. This can lead to death. Pregnant women and lactating mothers are recommended to use it only with the permission of the doctor.