Fennel, bulb

It is a highly aromatic perennial herb, erect, glaucous green, and grows to 2 m tall. The leaves grow up to 40 cm long; they are finely dissected, with the ultimate segments filiform, about 0.5 mm wide. The flowers are produced in terminal compound umbels 5-15 cm wide, each umbel section with 20-50 tiny yellow flowers on short pedicels. The fruit is a dry seed from 4-9 mm long, half as wide or less, and grooved.

Fennel has become naturalised along roadsides, in pastures, and other open sites in many regions, including northern Europe, the United States, southern Canada and in much of Asia and Australia. It is propagated by seed, and is considered to be a weed in Australia and the US.

Fennel bulb Nutrition Facts: Calories, Carbs, and Health Benefits

Fennel bulb is 90.21% water, 7.3% carbohydrates, 1.24% protein, and contains 0.2% fat. If you consume one fennel bulb it will provide you with 17.082 grams of carbohydrates. That translates to 13.14 percent of the 130 grams of carbohydrates people should include in their daily diet, according to the Institute of Medicine (US). That same in a 100 gram amount, fennel bulb supplies 31 calories and is an excellent source of Vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) (69.78% of the Daily Value). So if you have fennel bulbs in your diet, it helps your body to regulate concentration of calcium in the blood, retent of episodic memory (in older people), maintain healthy bone growth and resorption and it is effective against osteoporosis by regulating calcium levelshigh cholesterol levelneuronal damage in the brain. Besides it it contains a good amount of Manganese (10.61% DV).

Fennel is one of the primary ingredients of absinthe, an alcoholic mixture which originated as a medicinal elixir in Switzerland and became, by the late 19th century, a popular alcoholic drink in France and other countries.