🌶️ Spices

STAR ANISE Illicium verum

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🌶️ Accepted name 🌶️ Huang study: the oil 🌶️ Huang study: analysis 🌶️ Huang study: compounds 🌶️ Périno study: the oil 🌶️ Périno study: analysis 🌶️ Périno study: compounds 🌶️ ISO standard 🌶️ References
Introduction
Illicium verum Hook.f.

Species

BinomialIllicium verum
Accepted nameIllicium verum Hook.f.
POWO statusaccepted
FamilySchisandraceae
IPNI identifierurn:lsid:ipni.org:names:554553-1

Source: Govaerts R. (ed.), World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, accessed on 21/09/2026.

According to the World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP, Kew), in the extract read on 21 September 2026, Illicium verum Hook.f. is a name of rank “Species” with the status “Accepted”, placed in the family Schisandraceae. Huang et al. (2010) studied the essential oil of the fruit of “star anise (Illicium verum Hook. f.)”, obtained by hydrodistillation (“hydro-distillation”) and analysed by gas chromatography (GC) and by GC coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In that oil, the most abundant component was trans-anethole (“trans-anethole”, 89.5 %; RA, percentage of peak area relative to the total peak area).

Which name is accepted, and how do the sources write it?

The WCVP record carries the identifier 519502. Huang et al. (2010) write the name “Illicium verum Hook. f.”. Périno et al. (2019) write “Illicium verum”, among three spices with hard structures. They call the spice “Chinese star anise”.

How did Huang et al. (2010) obtain their star anise fruit oil?

The dry fruits of I. verum used for this oil were collected in September 2009 in Guangxi Province, in the south of China; this is where one lot was harvested. They were identified by Ye Wang, of the Key Laboratory of Chemistry for Natural Products of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Guizhou Province), and a voucher specimen (BSMPMI-200909001) was deposited in the herbarium of the Institute of Chinese Medicinal Materials, China Agricultural University. The fruits were stored at 4 °C before use. They were broken into pieces, ground, then hydrodistilled in a Clevenger-type apparatus. The distilled oil was extracted with diethyl ether, dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and kept in sealed dark glass vials at 4 °C; the oil analysed is thus a solvent-extracted laboratory distillate, not a commercial oil. For this lot and this procedure, the essential oil yield was 7.48 % (w/w, on a dry weight basis).

How was the oil analysed by Huang et al. (2010)?

The composition of the oil was determined by analytical GC (FID) and by GC/MS, with the same column and the same analysis conditions for both. The total neutral essential oil was analysed on an Agilent 6890N Network GC system fitted with an Agilent 5973 Network mass selective detector. The instrument carried an HP-5MS column (30 m × 0.25 mm, (5 %-phenyl)-methylpolysiloxane, film thickness 0.25 µm), a split-splitless injector at 250 °C and a flame ionisation detector (FID) at 240 °C. The oven was programmed at 50 °C for 1 min, then 3 °C/min to 150 °C, 1 min at 150 °C, then 8 °C/min to 230 °C, 2 min at 230 °C, and finally 20 °C/min to 260 °C, 5 min at 260 °C. The carrier gas was helium; 1.0 µL of sample was injected (split ratio 1:20) and the ionisation energy was 70 eV. Components were identified by comparing their mass spectra with the NIST 2002 library of the GC-MS system, and their retention indices (RI) with literature data. The RI of each component was determined against the retention times (RT) of a series of C8-C40 n-alkanes, by linear interpolation on the HP-5MS column, following the Van den Dool approach. The relative amount (RA) of each component is expressed as a percentage of the peak area relative to the total peak area.

Which compounds did Huang et al. (2010) report in the fruit oil?

The most abundant component was trans-anethole (“trans-anethole” in the text, 89.5 %; RA, percentage of peak area relative to the total peak area, per section 3.3). In Table 1, the line “trans-Anethole” reads 1387 in the “RI” column and 89.5 in the “RA (%)” column, RA being the peak area relative to the total peak area. The total of compounds identified in Table 1 is 94.6 in the “RA (%)” column, RA being the peak area relative to the total peak area; the table therefore does not give the complete composition of the oil.

What do the compound classes of Table 1 read?

The line “Monoterpene hydrocarbons” reads 1.5 in the “RA (%)” column (RA: peak area relative to the total peak area). The line “Oxygenated monoterpenes” reads 1.3 in the “RA (%)” column (RA: peak area relative to the total peak area).

Which other lines does Table 1 give?

Each of the following lines is from Table 1 of Huang et al. (2010), for the single lot harvested in Guangxi in 2009, with RA as the peak area relative to the total peak area.

  • “Camphene”: RI 950, RA (%) 0.2.
  • “β-Myrcene”: RI 991, RA (%) 0.1.
  • “α-Phellandrene”: RI 1003, RA (%) 0.1.
  • “δ-3-Carene”: RI 1016, RA (%) 0.3.
  • “p-Cymene”: RI 1029, RA (%) 0.1.
  • “Limonene”: RI 1033, RA (%) 0.4.
  • “trans-Ocimene”: RI 1040, RA (%) 0.1.
  • “γ-Terpinene”: RI 1060, RA (%) 0.1.
  • “Terpinolene”: RI 1100, RA (%) 0.1.
  • “Linalool”: RI 1114, RA (%) 0.3.
  • “Terpinen-4-ol”: RI 1177, RA (%) 0.2.
  • “Isobornyl thiocyanoacetate”: RI 1203, RA (%) 0.4.
  • “γ-Terpineol”: RI 1198, RA (%) 0.4.
  • “cis-Anethole”: RI 1254, RA (%) 0.7.
  • “β-Elemene”: RI 1389, RA (%) 0.1.
  • “Cyperene”: RI 1398, RA (%) 0.2.
  • “β-Caryophyllene”: RI 1418, RA (%) 0.1.
  • “α-Caryophyllene”: RI 1450, RA (%) 0.1.
  • “(+)-9-Epiledene”: RI 1507, RA (%) 0.1.
  • “Cubebene”: RI 1672, RA (%) 0.1.
  • “2-(1-cyclopentenyl)-Furan”: RI 1694, RA (%) 0.9.

How did Périno et al. (2019) obtain their pericarp oil?

The three spices studied by Périno et al. (2019), Illicium verum among them, were bought from local markets (Provence region, Avignon, France); this is a place of purchase only. For “Chinese star anise”, the comparisons with conventional hydrodistillation dealt with the pericarp (“pericarp”), not the whole fruit. According to the abstract, conventional hydrodistillation (HD, Clevenger apparatus) and a turbo-Clevenger (TC) were used to extract the essential oils of three spices with hard structures, including Illicium verum, and were compared. Hydrodistillation was carried out in the same reactor type (“the same reactor type”), without the adjusted arm (rotor and mixer). The hydrodistillations used 5 L of distilled water and, for “Chinese star anise”, 200 g of material, whose state and grinding the source does not give. The heat source was set for the solvent to reach 100 °C. The kinetics were calculated from the first drop of distillate observed, and extraction was carried on until no more oil was extracted.

The essential oil was dried over magnesium sulphate and kept at 4 °C until used.

How was the oil analysed by Périno et al. (2019)?

The composition of the essential oils was determined by GC-MS in electron impact ionisation mode (70 eV), on a Hewlett-Packard 6890 coupled to a 5973A mass spectrometer, with an HP5MS column (30 m × 0.25 mm × 0.25 µm film thickness). The carrier gas was helium at 0.3 mL/min on the HP-5MS column, in split-less mode, with 1 μL injected, the injector at 250 °C, and the oven held at 60 °C for 8 min, then raised at 2 °C/min to 250 °C and held 15 min at 250 °C. Components were identified by computer matching against commercial libraries (Wiley, MassFinder 2.1 Library and NIST98), laboratory mass spectra libraries built from pure substances and mass spectrometry data from the literature, combined with the comparison of GC retention indices (RI) on an apolar and a polar column. RI values were calculated with a series of linear alkanes C6–C26 on an HP5MS column, and the compounds available in the laboratory were confirmed by co-injection of an external standard. Each sample was analysed three times, and the RI was calculated as the average of the three runs; these are three GC-MS analyses, not three distillations.

What does Table 1 of Périno et al. (2019) give for the hydrodistilled pericarp oil?

Each value below is from the “HD (%)” column for “Chinese Star Anise” in Table 1; the source states neither the basis of the percentage nor the meaning of “±”.

Class line “Monoterpenes”: 2.2 ± 0.04 (percentage, basis and meaning of “±” not stated by the source); material distilled: pericarp (“pericarp”) of spices bought from local markets.

  • Line no. 1 “α-pinene”: RI 928 (“HP5MS”), 0.10 ± 0.08 (percentage, basis and meaning of “±” not stated by the source).
  • Line no. 2 “Sabinene”: RI 966, “tr.”, with no numerical value; according to note a, values below 0.1% are denoted traces (“tr”); basis of the percentage not stated by the source.
  • Line no. 3 “β-pinene”: RI 970, “tr.”, with no numerical value; according to note a, values below 0.1% are denoted traces (“tr”); basis of the percentage not stated by the source.
  • Line no. 4 “β-myrcene”: RI 987, 0.10 ± 0.01 (percentage, basis and meaning of “±” not stated by the source).
  • Line no. 5 “α-phellandrene”: RI 1005, 0.10 ± 0.03 (percentage, basis and meaning of “±” not stated by the source).
  • Line no. 6 “p-cymene”: RI 1020, 0.10 ± 0.06 (percentage, basis and meaning of “±” not stated by the source).
  • Line no. 7 “Limonene + β-phellandrene”: RI 1024, 1.80 ± 0.01 (percentage, basis and meaning of “±” not stated by the source); the value covers the whole line, which the table does not split between the two compounds.
  • Line no. 8 “α-terpinolene”: RI 1080, “tr.”, with no numerical value; according to note a, values below 0.1% are denoted traces (“tr”); basis of the percentage not stated by the source.

Class line “Oxygenated monoterpenes”: 1.1 ± 0.01 (percentage, basis and meaning of “±” not stated by the source); material distilled: pericarp (“pericarp”).

  • Line no. 9 “Eucalyptol”: RI 1026, 0.20 ± 0.01 (percentage, basis and meaning of “±” not stated by the source).
  • Line no. 10 “Linalool”: RI 1099, 0.70 ± 0.02 (percentage, basis and meaning of “±” not stated by the source).
  • Line no. 11 “4-terpineol”: RI 1173, 0.20 ± 0.01 (percentage, basis and meaning of “±” not stated by the source).
  • Line no. 17 “(E)-α-bergamoten” (name as the table writes it): RI 1424, “tr.”, with no numerical value; according to note a, values below 0.1% are denoted traces (“tr”); basis of the percentage not stated by the source.

Class line “Other oxygenated compounds”: 94.9 ± 0.07 (percentage, basis and meaning of “±” not stated by the source); material distilled: pericarp (“pericarp”).

  • Line no. 23 “Estragole”: RI 1194, 5.30 ± 0.03 (percentage, basis and meaning of “±” not stated by the source); material distilled: pericarp (“pericarp”) of spices bought from local markets; the value refers to this material, not to the species.
  • Line no. 25 “Anisaldehyde”: RI 1247, 2.60 ± 0.04 (percentage, basis and meaning of “±” not stated by the source; isomer not stated by the source).
  • Line no. 27 “Isoestragole” (name as the table writes it): RI 1288, 87.00 ± 0.15 (percentage, basis and meaning of “±” not stated by the source).

Which ISO standard bears the name of this oil?

According to the ISO catalogue for ICS class 71.100.60, the standard ISO 11016:1999 is titled “Oil of star anise, Chinese type (Illicium verum Hook. f.)” and stands at stage 90.93.

References