Sweet, warm anise-licorice character with a soft spicy-herbal edge, reminiscent of star anise and fennel. Rounded and slightly powdery, with a candied sweetness that lingers into the drydown.AI · claude-opus-4-7
Perfume and Flavor Chemicals, page 105.
Colorless, slightly oily liquid.
Slightly soluble in water, miscible with alcohol and oils, poorly soluble in Propylene glycol and Glycerin.
Very sweet, herbaceous-warm odor, sweet taste. It is the prototype of odors described as 'anisic'.
Anethole is stable under normal storage conditions, but may oxidize under poorer conditions and form 4:4-Dimethoxystilbene or it may polymerize to Metanethole, etc.
Extensively used in low-cost fragrances as a sweetener, particularly in soap perfumes and household product fragrances, industrial fragrances, etc. Blends very well with many florals of the Lilac, Appleblossom-type, and with non-florals such as Fougeres and woody types.
Very extensively used in flavor compositions (Note: trans-Anethole only) where its enormously flexible concentration level makes it an almost ideal flavor base. This is pictured in chewing gum and the heavily flavored French alcoholic beverage known as 'Anisette', where concentrations may run as high as 1500 ppm. Anethole forms the standard flavoring ingredient in Licorice candy, so common that Anise odor is often classified as 'Licorice odor' by the layman. Anethole is furthermore used in Birchbeer flavor, Fruit, Honey, Liquor, Nut, Rootbeer, 'Sarsaparilla', Spice, Vanilla, etc.
1) by Isomerization of Estragole using alcoholic Potassium hydroxide as agent. 2) From Anisole (Methyl phenylether) plus Propionaldehyde, Hydrochloric acid and Phosphoric acid to yield alpha-Chloro-para-propylanisole which is reacted with Pyridine to produce Anethole. 3) From Anisaldehyde and Ethylmagnesium iodide. 4) By isolation directly from Star Anise seed oil or Anise oil.