Star Anise: Flavor, Anethole, Uses and the Japanese Star Anise Danger

Star anise has a toxic look-alike, and that’s the most important thing to know before you buy it. The real thing is the dried, star-shaped fruit of Illicium verum, the strongly licorice-flavored spice behind Chinese five-spice powder and Vietnamese pho, and one or two whole stars will flavor a large pot. Japanese star anise has similar-looking fruits but is poisonous. In 2003 the FDA advised against drinking tea brewed from any star anise until it could tell the two apart.¹

At a glance

What star anise is

Illicium verum is an evergreen tree up to about 15 m tall with glossy leaves and solitary yellow-green flowers. The fruit is a cluster of boat-shaped follicles arranged in a star. PROSEA gives usually 8 follicles (from 5 to 13) and a whole fruit 2.5–4.5 cm across. Each follicle is 1–2 cm long, rough, rigid and reddish-brown, and holds one glossy, light-brown seed.³

The fruits are picked just before they ripen, when their oil content is high. Pickers climb the trees and harvest by hand or with a hooked pole, then the fruits dry in the sun for about 10 days.³

Flavor and the compounds behind it

Star anise smells and tastes of licorice, sweet and penetrating, with a slightly bitter, woody edge.

The chemistry is simple next to most spices. PROSEA reports an essential-oil yield of 3–3.5% from the fruit, with trans-anethole as the oil’s chief compound at 70–93%.³ The oil has a characteristic anise-like smell and sweet flavor. Anise seed and fennel are the spices it gets compared with most; see star anise vs. anise seed and fennel seed vs. anise seed. None of the sources we reviewed measured their flavor compounds side by side, so we can’t put numbers on that comparison here.

Two widely repeated claims couldn’t be traced: that star anise is “the most pungent” of the three anise-flavored spices, and that the pods carry more flavor than the seeds. Either may be true in practice, but neither appears in the sources we reviewed.

Origin and history

Kew says Illicium verum is thought most likely to be native to southern China and northeastern Vietnam, and that it’s been cultivated since about 2,000 BC.² PROSEA says it’s known only from cultivation, with semi-wild populations in abandoned plantations, and most probably came from southeastern China (Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Guizhou and Yunnan).³ Today Kew lists it as cultivated in China, Laos, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hainan and the Philippines.

How it reached Europe: a date that doesn’t fit

PROSEA says Europeans long believed star anise came from the Philippines because in 1578 the navigator Thomas Cavendish brought the first fruits, which came from southern China, to Europe by way of the Philippines.³ Britannica’s biography of Cavendish, though, dates his round-the-world voyage from July 1586 to September 1588 and puts his stop in the Philippines after November 1587.⁴ The 1578 date and the Cavendish story can’t both be right. We’re reporting the conflict, not picking a side, and the sources we found don’t settle when star anise reached Europe.

We couldn’t trace claims that its eight points were a sign of good luck in China, or that it was used in Russia from the 17th century and in Germany from the 18th.

Production and trade

PROSEA names China and Vietnam as the major producers and exporters of star anise fruit and oil, with China supplying the bulk of both. It reports that Vietnam exports 200–250 tonnes of star anise essential oil a year, mainly to France, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but doesn’t give a year for the figure.³ We found no current official production statistics for star anise.

How star anise is used

• China. Star anise generally goes into pork and chicken dishes in China. It’s one of the five spices in Chinese five-spice powder, which The Woks of Life lists as cinnamon, cloves, fennel, star anise and Sichuan peppercorns.
• Vietnam. Star anise is a standard pho spice. NPR’s one-day pho recipe adds two or three whole stars to the broth along with cinnamon, cloves and peppercorns.⁵
• Drinks. Star anise flavors liqueurs and spirits; Kew names Galliano, sambuca, pastis and some types of absinthe.² The essential oil also flavors candies, liqueurs and perfumes. In Thailand, Katzer says, iced tea is brewed from black tea flavored with star anise powder.⁶
• Processed foods. PROSEA lists beverages, baked goods, gelatins, puddings, and meat products among the products flavored with the fruit and oil.
• Baking. It goes well with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in spiced desserts, poached fruit and mulled drinks.

In the kitchen

Simmer whole stars in braises, broths and syrups and take them out before serving. One or two stars will flavor a large pot. Ground star anise is very strong and easy to overdo, and too much can make a dish taste bitter and medicinal. For more, see cooking with star anise and star anise uses.

Buying and quality

Know your star anise. PROSEA warns that star anise fruits are sometimes adulterated with similar-looking fruits of Illicium cambodianum or Illicium anisatum, the toxic Japanese star anise.³ It describes Japanese star anise fruits as more irregular, with wrinkled sides and finer, longer tips, a balsamic smell and a bitter taste. Don’t rely on those differences as a home test. FDA’s 2003 advice stood until the agency could tell Japanese and Chinese star anise apart,¹ and Kew researchers developed a laboratory method (thermal desorption gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) to distinguish the two.⁷ The practical safeguard: buy star anise sold as a food spice from a reputable supplier, and never put star anise sold for decoration or potpourri in food.

Whole stars should be intact, deep reddish-brown and strongly aromatic.

Storage

After drying, PROSEA says, the fruits are kept somewhere cool and dry. For the essential oil, it specifies airtight containers at no more than 25 °C, protected from light.³ We found no shelf-life figure for whole or ground star anise from a regulator or standards body.

Safety: Japanese star anise

Japanese star anise (Illicium anisatum) is a separate species in the same genus. Kew’s star anise profile calls it highly toxic,² and PROSEA describes its fruits as poisonous.³

In September 2003 the US Food and Drug Administration advised the public not to drink “teas” brewed from star anise. FDA had learned of about 40 illnesses over the previous two years, including about 15 in infants, with symptoms ranging from seizures to vomiting, jitteriness and rapid eye movement. The agency’s concern was that Chinese star anise, which it considers generally recognized as safe, may contain Japanese star anise, which “has long been recognized as toxic in many countries” and should be used only for decoration. Until it could tell the two apart, FDA advised against tea brewed from any star anise, and it said it would monitor imports so Japanese star anise isn’t labeled or marketed as food. Everyone affected, including the infants, recovered without complications.¹

The first cases were identified at Miami Children’s Hospital, and FDA also got similar reports from several other US states and from the Netherlands, France and Spain.¹

Health claims

Kew records that star anise is used in traditional Chinese medicine as a stimulant and expectorant and to relieve flatulence.² That’s a record of traditional use, not evidence that it works.

Shikimic acid and Tamiflu. Star anise contains shikimic acid, which is used to make an anti-influenza drug. Kew’s profile says star anise has been used as a source of shikimic acid, a primary precursor in making anti-influenza drugs such as Tamiflu.² That’s an industrial use of an extracted chemical. It doesn’t mean that eating star anise or drinking star anise tea protects against or treats the flu. And given FDA’s advice above, star anise tea isn’t a safe home remedy.

You’ll see claims that star anise fights candida, kills antibiotic-resistant bacteria, boosts immunity with quercetin, or acts as a significant antioxidant. We couldn’t trace any of them to a review or regulator, so we don’t make them here.

Substitutes and comparisons

Anise seed is the closest flavor match, and Chinese five-spice powder can stand in when the dish is already Chinese-spiced. See star anise substitutes for the ranked list, and star anise vs. anise seed and cloves vs. star anise for side-by-side comparisons. Related: anise seed and fennel seed.