New Prospects for an All-Around Spice
By Ann Perry
February 20, 2008
People use anise to add a hint of licorice to everything from holiday
springerle cookies to robust bottles of ouzo and raki. Now Agricultural
Research Service (ARS) postdoctoral
scientist
Nurhayat
Tabanca and plant pathologist
David
Wedge have found that anise (Pimpinella sp.) is more than just
another jar in the spice rack.
Teaming up with colleagues in Mississippi and Turkey, they isolated 22
compounds in Pimpinella's essential oils and found high levels of
organic mixtures called phenylpropanoids. Phenylpropanoids are found in a wide
variety of plants, and some are thought to have health-boosting benefits.
However, the chemical structure and biological activity of the
Pimpinella phenylpropanoids are unique. Some phenylpropanoid compounds
the team found have only been found in Pimpinella, and four of the
compounds they isolated had never before been identified in any plant.
The compounds were evaluated for their activities against the plant
fungus Colletotrichum, which causes anthracnose diseases worldwide. One
unique compound was especially effective against strawberry anthracnose and
strawberry soft rot and leaf blight. In addition, Pimpinella isaurica
essential oils were more effective in controlling aphids than isolated
Pimpinella phenylpropanoids.
These compounds were also tested for their activity against various
major and minor microbes. A few showed some effectiveness against Plasmodium
falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria in humans, and
Mycobacterium intracellulare, a bacterium which can cause illness in
immunocompromised patients.
Some phenylpropanoids exhibited anti-inflammatory activities.
Pimpinella essential oils also showed estrogenic effects in a yeast
model and were considered to have phytoestrogen properties.
These results suggest that Pimpinella essential oils may be a
source of potent compounds that could be used in developing powerful new
pharmaceuticals and agrochemical agents.
Tabanca and Wedge work at the
ARS
Natural Products Utilization Research Laboratory in Oxford, Miss. Other
researchers who contributed to this research include K. Husnu Can Baser and
Nese Kirimer with Anadolu
University in Eskisehir, Turkey; Erdal Bedir with
Ege University in Izmir, Turkey; Ikhlas
Khan and Shabana Khan from the University of
Mississippi; and
Blair Sampson,
who works at the ARS
Thad
Cochran Southern Horticultural Laboratory in Poplarville, Miss.
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.