Foeniculum vulgare Mill: A Review of Its Botany, Phytochemistry, Pharmacology, Contemporary Application, and Toxicology

Table 8

Details of pharmacological/biological activities reported from Foeniculum vulgare.

Activity	Plant part used	Dosage form/type of extract	Concentration/dosages	Tested living system/organ/cell/type of study	Results	References
Antiinflammatory	Fruit	Methanolic; Extract	200 mg/kg: oral administration	Invivo, male ICR mice, BALB/c mice, and Sprague-Dawley rats	Inhibitory effects against acute and subacute inflammatory diseases and type IV allergic reactions	[79]
Hepatoprotective	Seed	Essential oil	0.4 mL/kg	Invivo, carbon tetrachloride induced liver injury model in male Sprague-Dawley rats	Decreases the level of serum enzymes, namely, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and bilirubin	[9]
Hypoglycaemic	Seed	Essential oil	30 mg/kg	Invivo, streptozotocin induced diabetic rats	Ingestion of essential oil to diabetic rats corrected the hyperglycemia and the activity of serum glutathione peroxidase and also improved the pathological changes noticed in their kidney and pancreas	[12]
Antihirsutism	Seed	Fennel extract	Creams containing 1%, 2% of fennel extract and placebo	45 female patients aged 16–53 years with mild to moderate forms of idiopathic hirsutism	Cream containing 2% fennel is better than the cream containing 1% fennel and these two were more potent than placebo	[78]
Cytoprotective	Fruit	Methanolic; extract	200 𝜇g/mL	Normal human blood lymphocyte	Provides more cytoprotection for normal human lymphocytes as compared with standard sample, that is, doxorubicin	[11]
Antitumor	Fruit	Methanolic; extract	25 to 200 𝜇g/mL	B16F10 melanoma cell line	70% methanolic extract shows good antitumour activity at the concentration of 200 𝜇g/mL.	[11]
Antioxidant	Seed	Ethanol and water extract	100 𝜇g of ethanol and water extract	Invitro, not stated	77.5% and 99.1% inhibition of peroxidation in linoleic acid system, respectively.	[10]
Oestrogenic	Seed	Acetone extract	Not stated	Invivo, female rats	Weight of mammary glands increases also increases the weight of oviduct, endometrium, myometrium, cervix, and vagina	[8]
Vascular effects	Leaf	Aqueous extracts	0.1 to 0.4 mL injection	Invivo, pentobarbital-anaesthetised Sprague-Dawley rats	Significant dose-related reduction in arterial blood pressure, without affecting the heart rate or respiratory rate	[75]
Antistress	Fruit	Aqueous extracts	50, 100 and 200 mg/kg	Invivo, scopolamine-induced amnesic rats	Significant inhibition of the stress induced biochemical changes in vanillyl mandelic acid and ascorbic acid.	[13]
Memory-enhancing	Fruit	Aqueous extracts	50, 100, and 200 mg/kg	Invivo, scopolamine-induced amnesic rats	The significant reduction is achieved in amnesia in extract-treated groups as compared with the control group of animals	[13]
Chemopreventive	Seed	Test diet of fennel	4% and 6% test diets of Fennel	In-vivo, DMBA-induced skin and B(a)P-induced forestomach papillomagenesis in Swiss albino mice	Significant reduction in the skin and the forestomach tumor incidence and tumor multiplicity as compared to the control group of animal	[85]
Oculohypotensive	Seed	Aqueous extract	0.3%, 0.6%, and 1.2% (w/v)	Invivo, rabbits	It exhibits 17.49, 21.16, and 22.03% reduction of intraocular pressure (IOP) in normotensive rabbits at 0.3%, 0.6%, and 1.2% (w/v) concentrations of extract	[84]
Anticarcinogenic	Seed	Methanolic extract	100 mg/kg	Invivo, Swiss albino mice	Significant increase in malondialdehyde levels and the significant decrease in catalase activity and glutathione content in liver and tumor tissue in mice bearing Ehrlich ascites carcinoma	[140]
Antiaging	Seed	Fennel extract	Formulation containing 4% extract	Male volunteers with mean age of 48 years	Formulation showed significant effects on skin moisture and transepidermal water loss	[50]
Apoptotic	Fruit	Ethanol extract	100 to 300 𝜇g/mL	Nine human cell lines: ML-1, J-45.01, HL-60, 1301, U-266B1, WICL, C-8166, EOL, and H-9—human T cell	Highest mortality in Trypan blue test for J45 cell line, 4% of viable cells and for C8166 cell line, 100% of mortality	[86]
Antiulcerogenic	Aerial parts	Aqueous extract	75, 150, 300 mg/kg	Invivo, ethanol induced gastric lesions in Sprague-Dawley rats	Pretreatment with extracts significantly reduced ethanol induced gastric damage.	[81]
Cytotoxic	Root (ground part)	Dichloromethane and methanol (1 : 1) extract	700 𝜇g/mL	Murine fibrosarcoma L929sA cells and on the human breast cancer cells MDA-MB231 and MCF7	Cytotoxic activity may act via inhibition of the NFkB pathway.	[82]
Antimycobacterial	Aerial parts	Chloroform, hexane, methanol, and aqueous extracts	100 to 200 𝜇g/mL	Invitro, M. tuberculosis H37Rv (27294)	Hexane extract is active against pan sensitive strain of M. tuberculosis H37RV	[141]