Illicium verum

star anise • Chinese anise

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Illicium verum Hook.f. (Illiciaceae); steranys (Afrikaans); ba jiao hui xian (Chinese); badiane de Chine, anis étoilé (French); Echter Sternanis, Badian (German); anice stellato (Italian); bunga lawang (Indonesian, Malay); anis estallado (Spanish); dok chan (Thai); hôi (Vietnamese)

DESCRIPTION The attractive fruits have eight separate follicles and a distinctive sweet anise smell and taste, mainly located in the fruit wall and not the seeds. The similar-looking but poisonous fruits of Japanese anise or shikimi (Illicium anisatum) are less regular in shape but are best identified by their bitter and balsamic (not sweet anise-like) taste.1

THE PLANT An evergreen tree (up to 18 m or 60 ft), with solitary, yellow, magnolia-like flowers.2

ORIGIN North Vietnam and southern China.3

CULTIVATION The plant is no longer found in the wild but is cultivated (and used as a popular spice) in China, Japan, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. It is grown from seeds or cuttings and requires a tropical climate.

HARVESTING The fruits are harvested by hand when ripe and then dried.

CULINARY USES Star anise is the most important spice in Chinese cuisine and associated cooking traditions of Asia2 and is widely used in curries and chutneys. It is an essential ingredient of the main Chinese spice mixtures, including “five- spices powder” (wu xiang fen), “spicy liquid” (lu shui) and “major spices” (da liao).2 Chinese five- spices powder is a mixture of star anise, fennel, cassia, clove and Sichuan pepper in a ratio of 5:5:4:3:1. This mixture has many uses.2 Powdered and mixed with syrup or honey, it is applied to slow-cooked duck, spare ribs or suckling pig. Lu shui is a special spicy liquid or stock that is used repeatedly for boiling pork, lamb, beef, chicken and duck. The spices used in South China are star anise with cassia, clove, fennel, liquorice, kaempferia, black cardamom, Sichuan pepper and often tangerine peel; in North China, typically star anise with ginger, galangal, fennel, fenugreek, clove, cassia and black pepper.2 The spices are enclosed in a gauze bag and boiled in a mixture of water, soy sauce, gin, rock sugar, onion and garlic for 30 minutes, after which the parboiled meat (and salt) is added. The liquid is permanently kept to its original volume by adding water, soy sauce and gin, and the flavour is maintained by adding more spices on a weekly basis.2 Da liao is the main spice mixture used in everyday Chinese cooking to prepare meat dishes. It varies from place to place but star anise is invariably a main ingredient.2 Star anise has become popular all over the world for flavouring confectionery, biscuits, pastries and sweet desserts, especially poached fruits and fruit mousses. Star anise oil has largely replaced anise (Pimpinella anisum) in the production of anise liqueurs (anisette, sambuca) and anise brandies (arak, ouzo, pastis, Pernod, raki), as well as anise-flavoured sweets.

FLAVOUR COMPOUNDS Trans-anethole is the main flavour ingredient (as in real anise and fennel), representing 80% or more of the volatile compounds in star anise oil.3

NOTES Illicium species are a source of shikimic acid, used to produce modern antiviral drugs.

1. Burkill, I.H. 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula, Vol. 1, p. 944. Crown Agents for the Colonies, London.

2. Hu, S.-Y. 2005. Food plants of China. The Chinese University Press, Hong Kong.

3. Farrel, K.T. 1999. Spices, condiments and seasonings. Aspen Publishers, Gaithersburg, USA.