benefits of fennel seeds

It is very important to maintain the blood pressure and keep the heart rate balanced. Fennel Seeds help a lot in this process. The potassium content helps in maintaining the blood pressure and hence the heart rate is also maintained.

Sweet, anise flavored fennel seed together with thyme, nettle, mugwort, etc., has been revered as one of nine Anglo Saxon sacred herbs for its health benefits. The spice is one of the most sought after ingredients in many popular cuisines all over the Mediterranean regions.

Fennel is a perennial herb plant belong to parsley or Umbelliferae family, a broad family of herbs and spices, which includes some common members such as caraway, dill, anise, cumin

Fennel is native to Southern Europe and grown extensively all over Europe, Middle Eastern, China, India, and Turkey. This herbaceous plant reaches up to 2 meters (about 6 feet) in height with deep green feathery (lacy) leaves and bears golden yellow flowers in umbels. In general, fennel seeds are harvested when the seed heads turn light brown. The seeds, which resemble to anise seeds in appearance, feature oblong or curved (comma) shape, about 3 4 mm long, light brown color with fine vertical stripes over their surface.

Fennel seeds too are rich source of dietary fiber. 100 g seeds provide 39.8 g of fiber. Much of this roughage is metabolically inert insoluble fiber, which helps increase bulk of the food by absorbing water throughout the digestive system and easing constipation condition.

Fennel seeds compose of health benefiting volatile essential oil compounds such as anethole, limonene, anisic aldehyde, pinene, myrcene, fenchone, chavicol, and cineole. These active principles in the fennel are known to have antioxidant, digestive, carminative, and anti flatulent properties.

Fennel seeds are concentrated source of minerals like copper, iron, calcium, potassium, manganese, selenium, zinc, and magnesium. Copper is required in the production of red blood cells. Iron is required for red blood cell formation. Zinc is a co factor in many enzymes that regulate growth and development, sperm generation, digestion and nucleic acid synthesis. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure.

The seeds indeed are the storehouse for many vital vitamins. Vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin C as well as many B complex vitamins like thiamin, pyridoxine, riboflavin and niacin particularly are concentrated in these seeds.

Store dry fennel seeds as you do in case of other seeds like caraway, dill, etc. Place whole seeds in a clean air seal container and store in cool, humid free and dark place. Ground and powdered fennel should be stored inside the refrigerator in airtight containers and should be used sooner since it loses flavor quickly due to evaporation of its essential oils.

Fennel has long been used as a remedy for flatulence and indigestion in traditional medicines. Fennel seed decoction or added as spice in food has been found to increase breast milk secretion in nursing mothers.