Fructus Foeniculi (Xiaohuixiang)–Common Fennel Fruit
Origin
Common Fennel Fruit is the ripe fruit of Foeniculum vulgare Mill.The plant is collected in autumn when fruit nearly ripe and dried in the sun,then the drug is tapped off or removed from foreign matter.
Description and Identification
Cremocarp, sylindrical, some slightly curved,4 ~ 8mm long, 1.5 ~ 2.5mm in diameter. Externally yellowish-green or pale yellow,tapering slightly towards hoth ends,apex bearing remains of yellowish-brown projecting stylopodium, sometimes having a small fruit stalk at the base. Mericarp elongated-ellipitical, with each dorsal surface bearing five ribs and commissural surface flattened and broad. Transversely cut surface showing a pentagonal outling,the four sides of dorsal surface nearly equal in length. Odour, characteristically aromatic; taste, slightly sweet and pungent.
Chemical ingredients
Anisole, a -fenchone methylchavicol, anisaldehyde, etc.
Property and Channel Tropism
Property: acrid in taste; warm in nature. Channel tropism: liver, kidney, spleen, stomach.
Action and Indications
To dispel cold and relieve pain,to regulate the stomach funcion.
Scrotal hernia with pain and cold extremities; dysmenorrhea with lower abdominal pain and cold sensation; distending pain in the epigastrium with anorexia, vomiting and diarrhea; hydrocele of tunica vaginalis.
Place of Production
Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Liaoning, etc.
Recipes of Medicated Diet
1. Dou Kou Lu Niu Rou
Spiced Beef
[Ingredients ]
l000g beef
6g bai dou kou, round cardamom seed ( Fructus Amomi Rotundus )
6g cao dou kou, katsumadau galangal seed ( Semen Alpiniae Katsumadai)
3g ginger slice 3g pepper powder
2g shan nai, resurrection lily rhizome ( Rhizoma Kaempferiae )
2g xiao hui xiang, common fennel fruit ( Fructus Foeniculi Vulgaris )
2g gan cao, licorice root ( Radix Glycyrrhizae )
[Preparation]
Cut beef into lumps and pickle with salt and wild pepper for 4 hours ( in summer ) or 8 hours (in winter) ,turn over the beef 2 to 3 times during the process. Put other ingredients in gauze bag or spice pit. Put 1500ml water in a stew pot and boil over quick fire. Filter the floating froth, add in soybean and cooking wine and stew until the beef becomes thoroughly tender. Boil again over heavy fire and leave aside oil on the surface, take the beef out and dry by airing. Cut the beef into pieces and flavor with Monosidum glutamate and sesame oil.
[Effects and Indications]
Nourishing qi and benefiting spleen and blood.
Anemia,weakness and poor appetite before and after surgery.
2. Hui Xiang Dun Que Rou
Sparrow Stewed with Common Fennel Fruit
[ Ingredients ]
4 sparrows
5g xiao hui xiang, common fennel fruit ( Fructus Foeniculi Vulgaris ) 5g pepper
5g sha ren, villous amomum fruit ( Fructus Amomi)
3g rou gui, Chinese cassia tree-bark ( Cortex Cinnamomi Cassiae )
[ Preparation]
1 Stuff the sparrow with smashed ingredients, sew up and put the sparrow into a stew pot. Put the stew pot into another pot and add water. Boil for 3 hours over the mild fire. Season and serve.
[Effects and Indications]
It replenishes qi, invigorates spleen. Acts on syndrrome of spleen-stomach Yang deficiency.
