ANISE:
 (Pimpinella anisum) Anise has sweetly, aromatic leaves, rounded at the base and narrower on the stem, with umbels of flowers followed by aromatic fruits. The flowers and leaves are used in fruit salads, the stem and roots in sweet soups. In cooking or infused as a tea, the seeds aid digestion, quell nausea, and ease flatulence and colic. Anise is used in cough mixtures, as it is expectorant and soothes spasms of irritant coughs and bronchial problems. It promotes estrogen production and is used to encourage breast milk, ease childbirth, and stimulate libido. Tiny amounts of the essential oil, produced from the seeds, are added to toothpaste, perfumes and mouthwashes, and are used to mask bitter medicines, but in large amounts Anise is highly toxic. The seeds are carminative (they move gas out of the intestinal tract). Used in tea or as lozenges, they soothe a hard cough. For the tea, steep one teaspoon of the seeds in one cup of boiled water for ten minutes. Take up to one and half cups a day. The seeds can also be tinctured using two ounces of seed per on-half quart of brandy and some lemon peel. Let the mixture sit for twenty days. The dose is one teaspoon as needed. The seeds are make into a liqueur called anisette, which is mixed with hot water as a remedy for bronchitis and asthma. Anise seed tea is sweetened with honey and given to children with lung colds. Epilepsy, colic, and smoker's cough are treated with anise. For colic, simmer one teaspoon of the seed in one-half pint of mild for ten minutes, strain, and take it hot. Oil of anise is a natural insecticide.

a)       Parts Used:  Seeds and essential oil

b)       Magical Use: Anis seeds are an herb of protection said to avert all evil. In ancient Roman times, they  ere baked into a cake that was served at the end of the wedding feast. Purification, Protection, entices spirits to aid in spells, divination, psychic awareness, youth, In a pillow it wards off nightmares.

c)       Aromatherapy Use:   Muscular aches and pains, Rheumatism, Bronchitis, Colds and coughs, Colic, Cramps, Flatulence, Indigestion.