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Abstract
Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill) is an annual herbaceous plant widely cultivated throughout the temperate and tropical regions of the world. Seeds of fennel are used as flavouring agents in food products and an ingredient of cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. A study was conducted with five fennel varieties originated from different part of India and were evaluated for seed essential and total oil content and its composition, total phenolic, flavonoid and antioxidant properties of crude seed extract. The essential oil yield varied from 1.51 to 2.02%. Twenty one constituents belonging to terpenic hydrocarbons (7.646-12.966%), ether (9.05-88.73%), alcohols (0.0-0.062%), aldehydes (0.0-0.094%), carboxylic acid (3.225-6.328%) and diverse functional group (0.102-0.723%) were detected in essential oil. Among ethers, 4-allylanisole, anethol and estragol were the major compounds. Variation was observed for total phenolic and flavonoid content. Distilled water and hexane were found suitable solvent for maximum extraction. Distilled water extract showed a good combination of phenolics, flavonoids and antioxidant activity (71.12%). Seventeen fatty acids were found in fennel seed oil including petroselinic acid (62.08%-66.71%), 10-Nonadecanone (4.70-22.80%) and linoleic acid (1.32-7.59%). Oleic acid, stearic acid, eicosanoic acid, lenolenic acid and intermediate compounds cyclotetracosan, cyclohexadecan, 10-Nonadecanol were detected in one or other genotypes.