An official website of the United States government.

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases
U.S. Department of Agriculture
  1. Home
  2. Illicium verum

Illicium verum (Illiciaceae)

Common Names
Star Anise; Chinese Star Anise; Chinesischer Sternanis (Ger.); Sternanis (Ger.); anis de China (Sp.); anis estrellado (Sp.)
How this plant is used
Food
View the list of ubiquitous chemicals
Download these results as:
CSV
EXCEL
PDF
List of plant chemicals.
Click on column headings to sort table by that column. *Unless otherwise noted all references are to (Duke, 1992)
Chemical Name Activity Count Plant Part Low Parts Per Million High Parts Per Million Standard Deviation Reference
1,4-CINEOLE 0 Fruit Leung, A. Y. and Foster, S. 1995. Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients 2nd Ed. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 649 pp.
1,8-CINEOLE 67 Fruit 1.0 3500.0 -0.22 *
1-METHYL-4-ISOPROPENYL-BENZENE 0 Fruit 1.0 *
4-(BETA-D-GLUCOPYRANOSYLOXY)-BENZOIC-ACID 0 Fruit *
ALLO-AROMADENDRENE 0 Fruit 1050.0 -0.40 *
ALPHA-COPAENE 0 Fruit 25.0 1100.0 0.81 Leung, A. Y. and Foster, S. 1995. Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients 2nd Ed. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 649 pp.
ALPHA-CUBEBENE 0 Fruit 200.0 -0.61 *
ALPHA-HUMULENE 2 Fruit 1.0 900.0 -0.15 *
ALPHA-MUUROLENE 0 Fruit 1.0 -0.74 *
ALPHA-PHELLANDRENE 11 Fruit 435.0 -0.36 Leung, A. Y. and Foster, S. 1995. Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients 2nd Ed. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 649 pp.
ALPHA-PINENE 28 Fruit 50.0 1310.0 -0.38 Leung, A. Y. and Foster, S. 1995. Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients 2nd Ed. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 649 pp.
ALPHA-SANTALENE 0 Fruit 1.0 *
ALPHA-TERPINENE 13 Fruit 70.0 -0.07 *
ALPHA-TERPINEOL 23 Fruit 85.0 200.0 -0.24 Leung, A. Y. and Foster, S. 1995. Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients 2nd Ed. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 649 pp.
ANETHOLE 36 Plant Jeffery B. Harborne and H. Baxter, eds. 1983. Phytochemical Dictionary. A Handbook of Bioactive Compounds from Plants. Taylor & Frost, London. 791 pp.
ANISATIN 8 Seed Jeffery B. Harborne and H. Baxter, eds. 1983. Phytochemical Dictionary. A Handbook of Bioactive Compounds from Plants. Taylor & Frost, London. 791 pp.
BETA-BISABOLENE 6 Fruit 1.0 75.0 -0.87 Leung, A. Y. and Foster, S. 1995. Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients 2nd Ed. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 649 pp.
BETA-COPAENE 0 Fruit 500.0 *
BETA-ELEMENE 5 Fruit 1.0 650.0 0.32 *
BETA-PHELLANDRENE 3 Fruit 220.0 835.0 -0.33 Leung, A. Y. and Foster, S. 1995. Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients 2nd Ed. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 649 pp.
View the list of ubiquitous chemicals
Download these results as:
CSV
EXCEL
PDF
List of plant activities.
Click on column headings to sort table by that column. *Unless otherwise noted all references are to (Duke, 1992)
Activity Chemical Count Reference
Prooxidant 1 Charalambous, G. (Ed.). 1994. Spices, Herbs and Edible Fungi. Elsevier Science B. V. Amsterdam. 764 pp.
Propecic 1 *
Protisticide 1 *
Psychoactive 1 R.J. Hixtable (Huxtable, R.J. (as T. Max). 1992. This and That:The Essential Pharmacology of Herbs and Spices. Tips 13:15-20 Huxtable, R.J. 1992b. The Myth of Benficent Nature. The Risk of Herbal Preparations. Anns. Intern. Med. 117(2):165-6; Huxtable, R.
Psychotropic 1 Uchida, U., Ohta, H., Niwa, M., Mori, A., Nonaka, G-i., Nishioka, I., and Zaki, M. 1989. Prolongation of Life Span of Stroke-Prone Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (SHRSP) Ingesting Persimmon Tannin. Chem. Pharm. Bull. 38(4): 1049-1052, 1990.
Radioprotective 1 *
Renoirritant 1 Newall, C. A., Anderson, L. A. and Phillipson, J. D. 1996. Herbal Medicine - A Guide for Health-care Professionals. The Pharmaceutical Press, London. 296pp.
Rubefacient 1 Martindale's 29th
Secretogogue 2 Leung, A. Y. and Foster, S. 1995. Encyclopedia of Common Natural Ingredients 2nd Ed. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 649 pp.
Secretolytic 2 Bisset, N.G., ed. 1994. Herbal Drugs and Phytopharmaceuticals. CRC Press. Boca Raton, FL. 566 pp.
Sedative 11 Wagner & Wolff, eds. 1977. New Natural Products (RS164. I56. 176)
Spasmogenic 5 Fitoterapia No.59-1984.
Spermicide 2 Malini, T. and Vanithakumari, G. 1989. Rat Toxicity Studies With B-Sitosterol. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 28: 221-234, 1990.
Stomachic 1 *
Sunscreen 1 *
Surfactant 1 *
Sweetener 2 *
Sympathomimetic 1 Newall, C. A., Anderson, L. A. and Phillipson, J. D. 1996. Herbal Medicine - A Guide for Health-care Professionals. The Pharmaceutical Press, London. 296pp.
Termiticide 1 *
Termitifuge 2 Jacobson, M., Glossary of Plant-Derived Insect Deterrents, CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, FL, 213 p, 1990.