Fennel and ginger digestive blend

A fennel-and-ginger capsule is the industrial form of something Indian kitchens have done for centuries — a spoon of saunf after a meal, ginger in the pot. Thovek builds it as a defined two-extract blend rather than a ground-spice powder, so the markers sit on the certificate instead of being left to the crop. The fennel component is the fruit, commercially the seed, of Foeniculum vulgare Mill., family Apiaceae; its character comes from the essential oil, in which trans-anethole (C10H12O, MW 148.20, CAS 4180-23-8, PubChem CID 637563) dominates alongside fenchone and limonene. The European Pharmacopoeia draws the line between the two commercial varieties precisely: bitter fennel fruit must carry at least 40 mL/kg of essential oil with at least 60% anethole and at least 15% fenchone, while sweet fennel fruit must carry at least 20 mL/kg with at least 80% anethole. The ginger component is the rhizome of Zingiber officinale Roscoe, family Zingiberaceae, standardised by HPLC to total gingerols — the pungent principles led by 6-gingerol (C17H26O4, MW 294.4, CAS 23513-14-6, PubChem CID 442793) — with the Ph. Eur. drug itself carrying a minimum of 15 mL/kg essential oil. Fennel oil also contains estragole, and that is a specification point rather than a footnote. The pharmacopoeia caps it at a maximum of 5% of the oil in bitter fennel and 10% in sweet fennel, and European regulators have examined dietary intake from fennel preparations closely. Thovek measures estragole by GC and reports it on every certificate of analysis, and can hold a tighter internal cap where a customer’s market demands it. The other compliance item that regularly stops Indian botanical shipments at the EU border is ethylene oxide: this blend is steam-sterilised, never ETO-treated, and each lot is tested for ethylene oxide and 2-chloroethanol along with the usual pesticide residue panel, aflatoxins and PAHs. Thovek makes no therapeutic or disease claim for the blend; the digestive-comfort positioning used by brands in this category is the buyer’s to substantiate under the rules of the market they sell into. Both botanicals are plant material, so the blend is vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, non-GMO and free from milk, egg, soy, fish, crustacean and tree nut. One allergen point does deserve a line on the label: fennel is an Apiaceae, the same family as celery, which is a declarable allergen in the EU under Annex II of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011, and cross-reactivity between celery, mugwort and Apiaceae spices is well documented, so EU-facing brands commonly carry a cross-reaction statement even though fennel itself is not a listed allergen. Ginger raises no equivalent issue. The standard build is a 500 mg fill in a size 0 HPMC shell holding fennel seed extract and ginger extract in a 60:40 ratio; 250 mg and 400 mg fills, a bovine gelatin shell, and optional additions of ajwain (Trachyspermum ammi), peppermint leaf, cumin, cardamom or black pepper extract are made to the customer’s formula. The same blend is supplied as an unencapsulated free-flowing powder for tablets, stickpacks, chewables, instant drink premixes and mouth-freshener confectionery.