44 
PIMPINELLA ANISUM. 
geals, when the air is not very sensibly cold (50° Fahrenheit) into a 
white butyraceous concrete. Its taste is milder and less pungent 
than that of many other distilled vegetable oils ; but its smell, which 
exactly resembles the seeds, is extremely durable and diffusive. 
These seeds yield an oil also by expression, of a greenish colour, in 
taste grateful, and strongly impregnated with the flavour of the 
seeds. This oil consists of a bland, inodorous, fixed oil, combined 
with a considerable portion of the proper essential oil, on which the 
flavour and odour depends. Sixteen ounces of the seeds, lightly 
moistened by exposure to the steam of boiling water, are said to 
afford one ounce. 
Medical Properties and Uses. The seeds have been 
long medicinally employed as an aromatic and carminative, in pre- 
ference to most of the umbelliferous tribe of plants, particularly in 
flatulencies and tormina, to which young children are liable ; and they 
are usefully combined with such purgatives as are apt to produce 
these effects. Formerly they were esteemed useful in pulmonary 
complaints, and said to possess the power of promoting the secre- 
tion of milk. The essential oil may be taken in doses of from four, 
five, to twenty drops ; but in flatulencies and colics, the seeds in 
substance are said to be more effectual. They are given (when 
bruised) in doses of from twenty grains to one or two drachms. 
Off". The Seeds. 
Off. Pp. Oleum Anisi, L. E. D. 
Spiritus Anisi, L. 
