A PROMISING TREND IN THE PROCESSING OF FENNEL (FOENICULUM VULGARE MILL.) WHOLE PLANTS

Aromatic plants are a valuable source of biologically active substances. The use of aromatic plant processing products in the pharmaceutical, perfume and cosmetic, and food industries is of great interest. The search for new plant sources of biologically active substances and the study of their composition and properties are still topical. Fennel ( Foeniculum vulgare Mill. ) is a promising aromatic raw material containing a number of biologically active substances. Until now, essential oils were obtained only from fennel fruits and, less frequently, from whole plants. However, fennel raw materials contain microelements and macroelements, organic acids, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, tannins, polysaccharides, amino acids, coumarins, and flavonoids, which make the processing of whole plants reasonable. A rich spectrum of valuable fennel components requires the search for methods of their exhaustive recovery from plant raw materials, and this can be provided only with a complex processing technology. For this reason, the objective of our work was to develop a technology for the processing of fennel, a promising plant, on the basis of the steam distillation of raw materials and the aqueous alcoholic extraction of waste solid residues remaining after the recovery of essential oil with the purpose of obtaining aqueous alcoholic extracts, to study the other types of wastes formed in the course of processing, and to determine the field of their application. A promising trend in the processing of fennel was scientifically substantiated. Some regularities in the change of the yield of fennel essential oil components and their distribution between the plant organs depending on plant vegetation stages and weather in the submountain Crimea were established. The technical maturity of plants for industrial processing was defined. Waste residues after the extraction of essential oil were studied, and some new natural biologically active products were obtained.