Illicium verum · PhytoNexus

01 Identity and provenance

Accepted binomial: Illicium verum
Common names: Star Anise
Family (APG IV): Schisandraceae
Part used: Fruit
Verification tier: Tier 2 · Verified Clinical columns reviewed and a source is on record.
Reviewer note (2026 audit): PubMed 34582506 (neonate with seizures after star anise tea) | PubMed 21652187 (apparent life-threatening event) | Neurologia 2019 (new cases of star anise poisoning) | VERIFIED 2026 (batch 6) - synthetic analogue, application, interactions, side effects and references populated from retrieved primary/regulatory sources. Interactions labelled CLINICAL vs THEORETICAL. Marketed-formulation column intentionally blank. | IDENTITY

02 Constituent chemistry

Chemical class	Marker compound	Synthetic analogue in use
Volatile oil, shikimate	trans-Anethole, Shikimic acid Fruit	No synthetic analogue. trans-Anethole is the flavour principle; shikimic acid from the fruit is the industrial starting material for oseltamivir (Tamiflu) - the fruit is a chemical feedstock, not the antiviral.

The analogue column is what makes the interaction reasoning tractable: where a constituent has a marketed structural counterpart, the counterpart's interaction profile is the starting hypothesis for the plant.

Looking up structures and physicochemical properties from PubChem…

03 Stated application

Reported activity: Culinary spice; traditional carminative. WIDELY USED AS A FOLK REMEDY FOR INFANT COLIC across several cultures - which is the source of the harm.
Reported adverse effects: DO NOT GIVE STAR ANISE TEA TO INFANTS. The hazard is contamination of Chinese star anise (I. verum) with JAPANESE STAR ANISE (I. anisatum, shikimi), whose fruits are practically indistinguishable and which contains the potent neurotoxins anisatin, neoanisatin and pseudoanisatin. Reported infant presentations: irritability, jitteriness, clonus/myoclonus, brisk reflexes, nystagmus, vomiting, seizures, and apparent life-threatening events - including a 2-week-old given the tea for colic. I. verum itself contains veranisatins A-C, convulsant at 3 mg/kg in mice (anisatin at 1 mg/kg), at low but non-zero levels, so high doses of even authentic material can harm infants. Recovery is usual with withdrawal and supportive care; no long-term neurological sequelae reported. I. anisatum is on Spain’s restricted-sale list. Powdered product cannot be authenticated visually.

04 Interaction matrix

Source column, verbatim: CLINICAL: anisatins are non-competitive GABA-A antagonists, so additive proconvulsant risk with anything lowering seizure threshold. Benzodiazepines are the mechanistic counter and were used successfully in reported cases.
Normalised onto 1 canonical drug class below.

Curated from the reviewed source

Drug class	Severity	Mechanism type	Provenance	Expected effect
Sedatives, hypnotics and benzodiazepines CNS	3Major	PD-additive	curated A	Excess sedation, psychomotor and driving impairment, falls, respiratory d…	why ▾
Class mechanism. Valepotriate, kavalactone, apigenin, sesquiterpene and alkaloid constituents act at GABA-A, adenosine and histamine sites, summating with prescribed CNS depression. Some also inhibit CYP3A4 and raise benzodiazepine exposure. Expected Excess sedation, psychomotor and driving impairment, falls, respiratory depression when combined with opioids. Management Warn against driving and machine operation. Avoid triple combinations with opioids. Reduce hypnotic dose in older adults. Onset rapid Evidence A - human data with a cited source Matched on “benzodiazepines” Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism

Predicted from constituent chemistry

These edges are not clinical findings. Each one is a rule inference: a constituent class in this plant is known to act on a target that the drug class also acts on. They are shown because a blank cell reads as “safe”, and for a Tier 1 entry a blank cell only means “not yet looked at”. Treat them as a literature-search agenda, not as a warning.

Drug class	Severity	Mechanism type	Provenance	Expected effect
Narrow-therapeutic-index CYP3A4 substrates Pharmacokinetic	4Contraindicated	PK-CYP3A4	predicted D	Toxic accumulation or subtherapeutic failure of the co-prescribed drug, s…	why ▾
Chemistry of this pair. Volatile terpenes are lipophilic, cross membranes readily and induce or inhibit CYP2B6 and CYP3A4 depending on the constituent. Class mechanism. Furanocoumarins, bergamottin, piperine, glabridin and berberine inhibit CYP3A4; hyperforin, andrographolide and several diterpenes induce it through PXR. Because CYP3A4 handles roughly half of marketed drugs, the affected list is broad and the direction is product-specific. Expected Toxic accumulation or subtherapeutic failure of the co-prescribed drug, sometimes fatal for antiarrhythmics, immunosuppressants and oncology agents. Management Screen the full regimen for 3A4 substrates. Where the substrate has a narrow index, avoid rather than monitor. Onset unspecified Evidence D - in silico rule prediction only Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism
Topical antiseptics, keratolytics and irritants Dermatology	2Moderate	PD-additive local	predicted D	Contact dermatitis, chemical burn, photoirritation, unexpected systemic a…	why ▾
Chemistry of this pair. Volatile terpenes are lipophilic, cross membranes readily and induce or inhibit CYP2B6 and CYP3A4 depending on the constituent. Class mechanism. Essential-oil terpenes, capsaicinoids and phorbol-type diterpenes add to the barrier disruption caused by topical antiseptics, retinoids and keratolytics, and increase percutaneous absorption of anything applied with them. Expected Contact dermatitis, chemical burn, photoirritation, unexpected systemic absorption from broken skin. Management Patch test first. Never apply undiluted essential oils to broken or freshly shaved skin, or with occlusion. Onset rapid Evidence D - in silico rule prediction only Find evidence for this pair Map this mechanism

05 Hazard register

substitution - Contamination with Illicium anisatum (Japanese st

06 Confusable material

These entries could be mistaken for this one in trade, in the herbarium, or in a prescription. Powdered material is often indistinguishable, so the check is macroscopic, microscopic and chromatographic rather than nominal.

Pimpinella anisum

Anise

Apiaceae

Shares the common name "anise"

07 Mechanism map

Chemistry sorts to the left, pharmacology to the right. Dashed edges are predicted. Drag nodes, scroll to zoom, export at 3× for a figure.

species

chemical class

marker compound

drug class

expected effect

hazard

08 Open literature

Abstract-scoped query built from this binomial, its common names and its marker compounds, run live against Europe PMC, PubMed and OpenAlex, then ranked locally against an evidence hierarchy.

Checking openFDA spontaneous reports…

09 Isomechanistic neighbours

Species whose interaction profile overlaps this one, ranked by shared severity weight rather than by count — a shared contraindication counts for more than a shared minor signal. Practical use: these are the plants you should not stack with this one, because the mechanisms summate.

Species	Family	Shared classes	Jaccard
Centella asiatica Mandukaparni	Apiaceae	3	0.33
Lavandula angustifolia Lavender	Lamiaceae	3	1.00
Achillea millefolium Yarrow	Asteraceae	3	0.25
Nardostachys jatamansi Jatamansi	Caprifoliaceae	3	0.33
Valeriana jatamansi Tagar	Caprifoliaceae	3	0.38
Anamirta cocculus Fish Berry	Menispermaceae	3	0.50

10 References and notes

Source column: Ize-Ludlow D et al. Pediatrics 2004;114:e653-6

Ize-Ludlow D et al. Pediatrics 2004

Ize-Ludlow D et al. Pediatrics 2004 manual

114:e653-6

manual

BibTeX for all 2 records

@article{IzeLudlowD2004,
  title = {Ize-Ludlow D et al. Pediatrics 2004},
  author = {Ize-Ludlow D et al.},
  journal = {Pediatrics},
  year = {2004},
}

@article{anon,
  title = {114:e653-6},
}

Curator notes

No notes yet.

Sign in to add notes and save monographs.