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Star anise is the dried fruit of the Illicium verum, an evergreen tree of the Magnolia family, indigenous to the southeastern part of China and Vietnam. Its chemistry, flavour and uses are similar to those of anise.

Star anise is one of the most important spices in Chinese cuisine. It is also used as a flavouring in alcoholic drinks. The dried fruits of star anise are the source of oil of star anise, a volatile, aromatic oil used for flavouring smoked meats, candies, liqueurs, and perfumes.

Star anise is popular throughout Asia. Chinese five spice powder is a mixture of star anise, cinnamon, cloves, fennel and sichuan pepper. Ginger, galanga, black cardamom or even licorice are also sometimes added. It can be added to the batter of chinese-style fried vegetables or meat, or used as a meat coating with corn starch for deep frying, or in a marinade for stir frying.

Star anise is used much in the West as a substitute for anise in cooked dishes and liqueurs.

Dried Apricot Chutney with Star Anise

http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blcon46.htm:

Ingredients
¼ cup any vinegar
½ cup water
¼ cup sugar, honey, or other sweetener
Salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 small dried hot red chile, or to taste
3 star anise
1 tablespoon peeled and minced fresh ginger or 2 teaspoons ground ginger
½ cup minced onion
20 dried apricots, cut into 4 or 8 pieces each

Instructions
Combine all ingredients except the apricots in a small saucepan and turn the heat to medium. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, then lower the heat and cook for 5 minutes.

Add the apricots and continue to cook until all but a tiny bit of the liquid is gone. If the mixture is not 'jammy,' or the apricots not quite tender, add a little more water and cook some more. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary; you may add more of anything you like. Use within a few days and serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

Yield: about 2 cups

Chicken Simmered in Soy and Star Anise

http://www.recipelink.com/ch/2002/october/newfoodfast1.html

From: New Food Fast by Donna Hay
(Whitecap Books; November 1999; ISBN: 1551109786; PB)
Cookbook Heaven @ Recipelink.com

Servings: 2

1/3 cup (2 3/4 fl oz) soy sauce
¼ cup (2 fl oz) Chinese cooking wine or sherry
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 chicken breast fillets
1 bunch bok choy or Chinese greens, trimmed and halved
Place the soy sauce, cooking wine or sherry, oyster sauce, star anise, cinnamon stick and sugar in a frying pan over high heat and bring to a boil.
Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes on each side. Add the greens to the pan and cook for 2 minutes or until tender.
Place chicken and greens on serving plates and spoon over pan juices as sauce. Serve with steamed rice.

Star Anise Carrot Syrup

http://www.foodtv.com/foodtv/print/recipe/0,6255,68,00.html:

32 ounces fresh carrot juice
2 pieces star anise
1 cup canola oil
Salt and white pepper to taste

In a stainless steel casserole, reduce carrot juice with star anise until all of the water is evaporated. There will be a carrot. Remove the star anise and scrape the 'scum' to a blender. Blend at high speed while slowly adding oil to emulsify. Check for seasoning. Store at room temperature.

Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 12 hours
Cook Time: 2 hours

Because a tea or thick decoction has a stimulant/painkilling effect, Star Anise is useful for hacking coughs. As King's puts it, 'Both the seeds and oil of star-anise possess the stimulant, diuretic, carminative, and slightly anodyne properties of anise. Locally applied and internally administered, they have been used for abdominal pains, particularly when associated with flatus, and in bronchitis, and locally alone in earache and rheumatic complaints.'

The 1997 Commission E on Phytotherapy and Herbal Substances of the German Federal Institute for Drugs recommends Anise for 'Internal: Dyspeptic complaints. Internal and external use: Catarrhs of the respiratory tract.'

'Side Effects: Occasional allergic reactions of skin, respiratory tract, and gastrointestinal tract.'

'Dosage: Internal: Average daily dosage: 3 g of drug; Essential oil 0.3 g; equivalent preparations. External: Preparations containing 5 - 10 percent essential oil. Mode of Administration: Comminuted drug for infusions and other galenical preparations for internal use or for inhalation. Note: The purpose of an external application of an anise preparation is the inhalation of essential oil. Actions: Expectorant; Mildly antispasmodic; Antibacterial.'

Grieve's cllassic 'A Modern Herbal': 'Anise fruit yields on distillation from 2.5 to 3.5 per cent. of a fragrant, syrupy, volatile oil, of which anethol, present to about 90 per cent., is the principal aromatic constituent. It has a strong Anise odour and separates in the form of shining white crystalline scales on cooling the oil. Other constituents of the fruit are a fixed oil, choline, sugar and mucilage.'

'Oil of Anise, distilled in Europe from the fruits of Pimpinella anisum, Anise, and in China from the fruits of Illicium anisatum, Star Anise, a small tree indigenous to China, is colourless, or very pale yellow, with taste and odour like the fruit.'

'The oils obtainable from these two fruits are identical in composition, and nearly the same in most of their characters, but that from Star Anise fruit congeals at a lower temperature. The powdered drug from Star Anise is administered in India as a substitute for the official fruit, and the oil is employed for its aromatic, carminative and stimulant properties. The bulk of the oil in commerce is obtained from the Star Anise fruit in China. The fruits are also often imported into France and the oil extracted there. Chinese Anise oil is harsh in taste.'

'Medicinal Action and Uses: Carminative and pectoral. Anise enjoys considerable reputation as a medicine in coughs and pectoral affections. In hard, dry coughs where expectoration is difficult, it is of much value. It is greatly used in the form of lozenges and the seeds have also been used for smoking, to promote expectoration.'

'The volatile oil, mixed with spirits of wine forms the liqueur Anisette, which has a beneficial action on the bronchial tubes, and for bronchitis and spasmodic asthma, Anisette, if administered in hot water, is an immediate palliative.'

'For infantile catarrh, Aniseed tea is very helpful. It is made by pouring half a pint of boiling water on 2 teaspoonsful of bruised seed. This, sweetened, is given cold in doses of 1 to 3 teaspoonsful frequently.'

'The stimulant and carminative properties of Anise make it useful in flatulency and colic. It is used as an ingredient of cathartic and aperient pills, to relieve flatulence and diminish the griping of purgative medicines, and may be given with perfect safety in convulsions.'

'For colic, the dose is 10 to 30 grains of bruised or powdered seeds infused in distilled water, taken in wineglassful doses, or 4 to 20 drops of the essential oil on sugar. For the restlessness of languid digestion, a dose of essence of aniseed in hot water at bedtime is much commended.'

'In the Paregoric Elixir (Compound Tincture of Camphor), prescribed as a sedative cordial by doctors, oil of Anise is also included - 30 drops in a pint of the tincture.'

'Anise oil is a good antiseptic and is used, mixed with oil of Peppermint or Gaultheria (Wintergreen) to flavour aromatic liquid dentrifrices.'

'Oil of Anise is used also against insects especially when mixed with oil of Sassafras and Carbolic oil.'

King's 1898 Dispensatory: 'A stimulant and carminative; used in cases of flatulency, flatulent colic of infants, and to remove nausea. Sometimes added to other medicines to improve their flavor, correct griping and other disagreeable effects.'

'The dose of aniseed, crushed or powdered, is from 20 to 40 grains. Infusion (ij or iij to aqua Oss.), for infants, in doses of a teaspoonful.'

Eclectic Materia Medica, 1922 (Felter): 'Anise is an agreeable stimulating carminative employed principally for the relief of nausea, flatulency, and the flatulent colic of infants. Anise imparts its odor to the milk of nursing mothers.'

'It is an ingredient of Paregoric (Camphorated Tincture of Opium), and is largely used to impart to or correct flavor in medicinal preparations, especially cough mixtures. For infants the infusion is the best preparation and it should not be sweetened. The spirit (½ to 1 fluidrachm) given in hot water is more agreeable and effective for older children and adults. The oil (1 to 5 drops) on sugar may be used by the latter, if desired.'