ANISUNA (Fruit)
Anisuna consists of dried fruit of Pimpinella anisum Linn. (Fam. Apiacem); an annual erect plant introduced and cultivated in India at Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Punjab.
SYNONYMS
Sanskrit : Svetapuspa
Assamese : —
Bengali : Muhuri
English : Anise
Gujrati : —
Hindi : Badiyan Rumee, Sauph, Anisoon
Kannada : —
Kashmiri : —
Malayalam : —
Marathi : Anisuna Shopa
Oriya : —
Punjabi : —
Tamil : Shombu
Telugu : —
Urdu : —
DESCRIPTION
a) Macroscopic
The fruits are entire cremocarp, 3 to 5 mm long and 1 to 2 mm wide, ovoid, generally attached with slender pedicel, stylopods with bifurcate short styles; greenishyellow or greenish-brown in colour; rough to touch due to the presence of trichomes; primary ridges 8 to 12 in number with uniform width; odour characteristic and taste sweet and aromatic.
b) Microscopic
T.S. of fruit shows single layered epidermis with small, numerous, conical, mostly unicellular, occasionally two celled, thick walled and warty trichomes, vascular tissues present under the ridges; about 40 vittm are present on the dorsal surface and two large vittm on commissural surface; a few of the vittm are branched; small patch of mesocarpic stone cells are present at the commissural surface; inner epidermis represented by parquetry layer consisting of tangentially elongated cells; endosperm exhibits thick walled parenchyma cells with numerous aleurone grains usually containing a minute rosette of calcium oxalate and occasionally oil globules.
Powder – Powder shows fragments of vascular elements with scalariform, spiral and reticulate thickening; striated epidermal cells with occasional anomocytic stomata, thin walled parenchyma cells, tangentially elongated cells of parquetry layer, thick walled cells of endosperm with aleurone grains containing minute rosettes of calcium oxalate and oil globules, scattered aleurone grains with crystals of calcium oxalate and small conical, unicellular, occasionally bicellular, warty trichomes; fibres, stone cells and vittm with underlying parquetry cells.
IDENTITY, PURITY AND STRENGTH
Foreign matter Not more than 2 per cent, Appendix 2.2.2.
Total Ash Not more than 8 per cent, Appendix 2.2.3.
Acid-insoluble ash Not more than 1 per cent, Appendix 2.2.4.
Alcohol-soluble extractive Not less than 15 per cent, Appendix 2.2.6.
Water-soluble extractive Not less than 30 per cent, Appendix 2.2.7.
ASSAY
The drug on steam distillation yields colourless oil, not less than 1.8% v/w (Appendix 2.2.10).
T.L.C.
TLC of alcoholic extract on Silica gel ‘G’ plates (Merck), using Toulene : Ethyl acetate (93.7) shows under UV (254nm) five spots at Rf.0.18, 0.32(both orange), 0.38(white), 0.44 (red), 0.88(violet); on exposure to iodine vapours four yellow spots appear at Rf.0.23, 0.32, 0.38 and 0.88; on exposures to with vanillin-sulphuric acid and heating the plate at 110oC for 10 minutes, six violet spots appear at Rf. 0.18, 0.23, 0.32, 0.38, 0.60 and 0.88.
CONSTITUENTS – Volatile oil, fixed oils and protein.
PROPERTIES AND ACTION
Rasa : Katu, Tikta
Guna : Laghu, Tiksna
Virya : Usna
Vipaka : Katu
Karma : Kaphahara, Vatanulomaka, Raksoghna, Artavajanana
IMPORTANT FORMULATIONS – Brahmi Vati
THERAPEUTIC USES – Sula, Adhmana, Kaphavikara, Mutraghata, Balagraha
DOSE – 1-3 g.
Q. S. for dhupanartha [fumigation].
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