Fennel - Foeniculum vulgare - It is an annual plant with a strongly developed taproot. Fennel is cultivated both as a vegetable plant and as a medicinal plant. It is particularly important in human nutrition due to its rich content of vitamins, mineral salts and essential oils. The pharmacological properties of the leaves are primarily due to the essential oils. The amount in which they are found in fruits differs according to the variety, origin and degree of ripening of the fruits. Thus, the fruits from sweet fennel are poorer in essential oil than those from bitter fennel. Those from France or Italy contain 1.7 - 3.8% essential oil, while those from Egypt 2.45 - 3.5%. The main component that differentiates sweet fennel from bitter fennel is fenchone; in the "vulgare" convariety this varies between 10 and 30%, giving the oil a bitter taste, while in the sweet convariety it does not exceed 10%, sometimes being below 1%, or even absent.