Sweet aromatic fennel is a flavorful herb that gives your meals a delicious taste. It’s also full of health benefits and natural medicinal uses.
If you have ever dined at an East Indian restaurant, you may have noticed the dish of colorful seeds ready to be eaten on the way out. These tiny seeds are fennel. Millions of individuals in India chew on fennel after meals in the same way many cultures use mints. The most common way to use fennel seeds is to help with digestion, but there are several others.
1. Helps Digestion
Fennel seeds stimulate digestion while having calming effects. This makes it very good for soothing the digestive system and keeping nausea at bay. Chewing a teaspoon of fennel seeds after meals or drinking fennel seed tea helps with digestion, stomach pains and bloating. For more extreme nausea its best used ground up in capsules with ginger, as they work together well.
For the ginger and fennel, do not exceed dosage recommendations. Be sure to consult with your doctor if you are pregnant, nursing or taking any medication.
2. May Help Reduce Cancer
Fennel seed methanolic extract was found to be useful as an anticancer agent in a study. They found that fennel seed methanolic extract may have notable anticancer potential against a breast cancer and liver cancer.
3. Reduces Excess Hair Growth
In a study, researchers found a cream containing 2 percent extract of fennel helped to reduce excessive hair growth in women diagnosed with idiopathic hirsutism.
4. Menstrual Discomfort Reduced
At the Islamic Azad University in Toyserkan, a study was performed with 80 female students and the results showed fennel to help reduce menstrual discomfort and duration.
5. Menopause Symptoms Reduced
Extracts of fennel have estrogen properties that help balance the female reproductive system. The hormonal imbalance caused by menopause has been shown in to be reduced with consumption of fennel seed extract.
6. Decreases Colic in Babies
Fennel seed oil decreased intensity of colic in babies. In one study it was able to eliminate colic in 40 of 62 infants in its treatment group. The scientists noted that the effective prescription medication for colic, Dicyclomine hydrochloride, had serious side effects, including death in 5 percent of infants treated. Fennel does not have these side effects.