Essense of anise is an effective ingredient in some homemade cough syrups
Cough Syrup Recipe #1
Take a good sized handful of each: Horehound herb, elecampane root, spikenard root, ginseng root, black cohosh, and skunk cabbage root.
Bruise and cover with spirits or whisky, and let stand ten days; then put all in a suitable vessel, add about four quarts of water and simmer slowly over a fire (but don’t boil) for twelve hours, or till reduced to about three pints.
Strain and add one pint of strained honey, half a pint each of number six, tincture lobelia, and tincture bloodroot (the vinegar or acetic tincture of bloodroot is the best) and four ounces of strong essence of anise, and you will have one of the best cough syrups known.
Dose: A tablespoonful three to six times a day, according to circumstances. Good in all kinds of coughs and incipient consumption.
Soothing Cough Mixture #2
Take mucilage of gum arabic, oil of sweet almonds, syrup of balsam tolu, and wine of ipecac, of each one ounce; tincture of opium, half an ounce.
Dose: For a grown person, one to two teaspoonfuls as often as required.
Cough Mixture #3
Take extract of liquorice, one ounce, powdered; nitrate of potash (saltpetre) and muriate of ammonia, of each two drams.
Dissolve in half a pint of boiling water, and when cool add wine of ipecac, syrup of balsam tolu, and essence of anise, of each one ounce.
Dose: From a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful several times a day. An excellent remedy for bronchitis, colds, and catarrhal coughs.