562 BOTANY AND PHARAIACOGNOSY. 



lowish-brown, with a slender carpophore attached to each meri- 

 carp, the latter in section irregularly plano-convex, slightly con- 

 cave on the commissural side and usually with two large vittse on 

 each face,, dorsal surface with 30 to 40 vittse ; seed somewhat reni- 

 form in section, closely cohering to the pericarp, with a small 

 embryo at the upper end of the reserve layer; odor and taste 

 pleasantly aromatic. 



Inner Structure. — See Fig. 244. 



Constituents. — Volatile oil (i to 3 per cent.) consisting of 

 about 80 to 90 per cent, of anethol (p-propenylanisol), and 

 methyl-chavicol and terpenes ; fixed oil 3 to 4 per cent. ; calcium 

 oxalate ; ash about 7 per cent. 



Russian aniseed is used chiefly for the manufacture of the 

 volatile oil. 



Allied Drugs. — Illicium or star-anise (p. 274) yields an oil 

 closely resembling that of anise. It contains 80 to 90 per cent, 

 of anethol, d-pinene, d-phellandrene, ethyl ether of hydroqui- 

 none and possibly safrol. 



Pimpernel (or Pimpinella) the root of Pimpinclla Saxi- 

 fraga and P. magna, is used like anise. It occurs in fusiform 

 pieces about 8 to 10 cm. long, 4 to 10 mm. in diameter, exterrially 

 yellowish-brown, fracture short, internally whitish, with numerous 

 yellowish resin canals ; the taste is acrid, pungent and aromatic. 

 The drug contains a volatile oil, an acrid resin, a tasteless crys- 

 talline principle pimpinellin, about 8 per cent, of sugar, starch 

 and tannin. 



Adulter,\nts. — Italian aniseed is sometimes contaminated with 

 conium, and the friuts of some of the grasses and rushes as well. 



CORIANDRUAI.— CORIANDER.— The dried, ripe fruit of 

 Coriandrum sativum (Fam. Umbelliferse), an annual herb (p. 

 352), indigenous to the Mediterranean and Caucasian region, 

 naturalized in the temperate parts of Europe, and cultivated there 

 and in Africa and India. The fruit is collected when full grown 

 from cultivated plants, from which it is separated by thrashing, 

 and dried. The fruits from plants grown in Russia and Thuringia 

 are preferred. The young plants, particularly the leaves, as well 

 as immature fruits, emit a disagreeable odor, whence the name 

 Coriandrum. 



