Page 64 - Pharmacognosy 02-06203

Unless otherwise indicated:
Average oral daily dose (or intern al use): Anise fruits 3.0 g.

3- Ammi visnaga ( Fructus Ammi Visnagae)
It is the dried ripe fruits of Ammi visnaga.
Geographical distribution:
It is indigenous to the Mediterranean region. Cultivated in North America and in Argentina,
Chile, Egypt, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Mexico, Tunisia and Russian Federation
Macroscopic characters:
The drug consists of separate mericarps with few entire cremocarps. The mericarp is
small, ovoid, about 2 mm long, 1 mm wide and surmounted by a pyramidal stylopod
bearing at its apex a reflexed style. The outer surface is brownish to greenish brown in
colour with a violet tinge, glabrous and marked with 5 distinct pale brownish rather broad
primary ridges and 4 inconspicuous dark secondary ridges.
T.S. of the mericarp is an almost regular pentagon showing a pericarp with 6 vittae, 4 in
the dorsal and 2 in the commissural side with 5 vascular strands. The seed has a large
oily orthospermous endosperm and a small apical embryo.

Organoleptic properties:
Odour: slightly aromatic; taste: aromatic, bitter slightly pungent.
(N.B.) Ammi visnaga fruits should contain not more than 2% of stalks and other foreign
organic matter and not less than 1% γ-pyrones (furanochromone derivatives) calculated
as khellin.
Microscopic characteristics: I.
The pericarp:
1- Epicarp: consists of polygonal cells, elongated on the ridges, with occasional
crystals of calcium oxalate and finely striated cuticle, but no hairs.
2- Mesocarp: consists of parenchyma, traversed longitudinally by large,
schizogenous vittae, each surrounded by large, slightly-radiating cells, and in the ridges
by the fibrovascular bundles, each forming a crescent around a com¬paratively large
lacuna and accompanied by fibers and reticulate, lignified cells.

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