Fennel Extract

Fennel Extract is produced from the dried ripe fruit of Foeniculum vulgare Mill. (Apiaceae) — the commodity traded in India as saunf and grown mainly across the Gujarat and Rajasthan belt. The cleaned, milled fruit is extracted with water and food-grade ethanol, concentrated under vacuum and spray-dried, either onto maize-derived maltodextrin or onto gum acacia for label-friendly formulations. Thovek supplies it two ways: as a native drug-to-extract concentrate at 4:1 or 10:1 for ratio-based and traditional formulations, and as a GC-standardised grade set on trans-anethole (CAS 4180-23-8, C10H12O, MW 148.20, FEMA 2086), the phenylpropanoid that carries fennel's sweet anise-like character. Anethole in fennel is accompanied by fenchone and by estragole (methyl chavicol), and the balance between them is what separates one raw material from another. The pharmacopoeial reference points for the fruit itself are a useful anchor when agreeing a specification: Ph. Eur. bitter fennel fruit requires a minimum of 40 mL/kg essential oil, with the oil at minimum 60 per cent anethole, minimum 15 per cent fenchone and a maximum of 5 per cent estragole; Ph. Eur. sweet fennel fruit requires a minimum of 20 mL/kg essential oil with minimum 80 per cent anethole and a maximum of 10 per cent estragole. Because estragole sits inside the p-allylalkoxybenzene group currently under EFSA review, we can select sweet fennel (var. dulce) raw material and report estragole by GC on every lot, which matters for EU-bound formulations. Extraction uses water and ethanol only — no chlorinated and no ICH Class 1 solvents. The material is plant-derived throughout: vegan and vegetarian, with no bovine, porcine, marine, dairy or egg input at any stage. It is free of the declarable allergens milk, egg, fish, crustacean and mollusc, soy, peanut and tree nut, sesame, mustard, lupin and sulphites, and the maltodextrin carrier is maize-derived so the finished powder is gluten-free. One point buyers should carry into their own labelling: fennel is not itself a listed allergen, but it belongs to the Apiaceae alongside celery, which is an EU Annex II allergen, and cross-reactivity within that family is documented — some EU brand owners choose to flag it voluntarily. Every consignment ships with CoA, GC standardisation data, heavy-metal and pesticide-residue results, microbiological report, allergen and GMO declarations, MSDS and origin certificate; halal and kosher certification is available on request.