Description
Aniseed is an annual plant with an average height of 30 to 50 cm. The plant is completely covered with fine hairs. Aniseed is ground-grey to greyish brown in colour,3 to 5mm in length, oval in shape with short stalk attached. Five longitudinal ridges are visible on each pericarp. Vittae (oil ducts) are almost always present embedded in the fruit wall beneath the ridges. It has a characteristic agreeable odour and a pleasant aromatic taste.



 Origin and Distribution
  It is a native of East Mediterranean Region. It is widely cultivated in Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, South America, Syria, Turkey, Spain, UK and USSR. In India, it is grown to a small extent as a culinary herb or as a garden plant. The major products are anis oil and oleoresin anis.

Uses It is used mainly as a flavourant, culinary, household, cosmetic and medicinal. The fruit of anis, commercially called aniseed is widely used for flavouring curries, bread, soups, baked goods, dried figs, deserts, cream cheese, pickles, egg dishes, non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages. The essential oil is valuable in perfumery. The oil is used for production of anethole and sometimes as sensitizer for bleaching colours in photography. The other functional properties are anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-oxidant, stimulant, carminative and expectorant.
 

otanical name	Family name	Commercial part
Pimpinella anisum	Apiaceae	Fruit

Indian Names Hindi : Valaiti saunf or aawonf Bengali : Muhuri, Mitha jira Gujarati : Anisi, Sowa Kannada :�sompu Malayalam :�Shombu Marathi :�Somp, Badishop Oriya :�Sop Punjabi :�Valaiti sounf Sanskrit :�Shatapusapa Tamil :�Shombu Telugu :�Kuppi soptu

Spices and Seasoning

ALLSPICE [PIMENTO]
 
Description
Allspice trees are evergreen medium sized, grow up to a height of 8 to 10 meters and with a slender upright trunk and smooth greyish bark. The mail trees produce only few fruits. The male and female trees are similar in appearance and cannot be identified till flowering commences.

Origin and Distribution The tree is indigenous to West Indies (Jamaica) but is also found in Central America. Attempts to introduce into countries in tropical regions didn’t succeed fully. In India, there are few trees in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. The dried berries range in size (6.5 to 9.5 mm in diameter) and there are 13 to 14 berries per gram. The quality of pimento is affected by factors like growing area, stage of maturity of berries at harvest and storage conditions.

Uses The major use of allspice is in food industry (65 to 70%) in domestic use (5% to 10%), production of berry oil (20% to 25%), extraction of oleoresin (1% to 2%) and pharmaceutical and perfume industry. Berry, berry oil, oleoresin, leaf oil are products of economic use. It is used mostly in Western cooking and less suitable for Eastern cooking. It has medicinal, anti-microbial, insecticidal, nematicidal, anti-oxidant and deodorant properties.

Botanical name	Family name	Commercial part
Pimenta dioica	Myrtaceae	Fruit & Seed

Indian names
Kannada	: Gandamenasu
Malayalam	: Sarvasugandhi
Tamil	: Sarvasukanthi

Foreign Name of Spices
Arabic	: Bahar, Bhar hub wa na�im�
Danish	: Allehande
Dutch	: Jamaica pepper, piment
English	: Jamaica pepper, myrtle pepper, pimento, newspice
Estonian	: Harilik pimwnsipuu, Vurts
Finnish	: Maustepippuri
French	: Piment. Piment Jamaique, Poivre aromatique, toute-epice, poivre de la Jamaique
German	: Piment Neugewurz, Allgewurz, Nelkenpeffer, Jamaicapfeffer, Englisches Gewurz
Hungarian	: Jamaikai szegfubors, Szegfubors, Pimento, Amomummag
Icelandic	: Allrahanda
Italian	: Pimento, pepe di Giamaica
Norwegian	: Allehande
Polish	: Ziele angielskie
Portuguese	: Pimenta da Jamaica
Russian	: Yamaiskiy pjerets
Spanish	: Pimienta de Jamaica, Pimienta gorda
Swedish	: Kryddpeppar
Turkish	: Yeni bahar

Indian Food Industry

India is the world's second largest producer of food next to China, and has the potential of being the biggest with the food and agricultural sector. The total food production in India is likely to double in the next ten years and there is an opportunity for large investments in food and food processing technologies, skills and equipment, especially in areas of Canning, Dairy and Food Processing, Specialty Processing, Packaging, Frozen Food/Refrigeration and Thermos Processing. Fruits & Vegetables, Fisheries, Milk & Milk Products, Meat & Poultry, Packaged/Convenience Foods, Alcoholic Beverages & Soft Drinks and Grains are important sub-sectors of the food processing industry. Health food and health food supplements is another rapidly rising segment of this industry which is gaining vast popularity amongst the health conscious. India is one of the worlds major food producers but accounts for less than 1.5 per cent of international food trade. This indicates vast scope for both investors and exporters. Food exports in 1998 stood at US $5.8 billion whereas the world total was US $438 billion. The Indian food industries sales turnover is Rs 140,000 crore (1 crore = 10 million) annually as at the start of year 2000. The industry has the highest number of plants approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) outside the USA. India's food processing sector covers fruit and vegetables; meat and poultry; milk and milk products, alcoholic beverages, fisheries, plantation, grain processing and other consumer product groups like confectionery, chocolates and cocoa products, Soya-based products, mineral water, high protein foods etc. We cover an exhaustive database of an array of suppliers, manufacturers, exporters and importers widely dealing in sectors like the -Food Industry, Dairy processing, Indian beverage industry etc. We also cover sectors like dairy plants, canning, bottling plants, packaging industries, process machinery etc. The most promising sub-sectors includes -Soft-drink bottling, Confectionery manufacture, Fishing, aquaculture, Grain-milling and grain-based products, Meat and poultry processing, Alcoholic beverages, Milk processing, Tomato paste, Fast-food, Ready-to-eat breakfast cereals, Food additives, flavors etc.....