Anethole

Chemical Property

Colorless or yellowish liquid or crystal. The melting point is 22.5℃, the boiling point is 235℃, 81-81.5℃ (307Pa), the relative density is 0.9883 (20/4℃), the refractive index is 1.56145, and the flash point is 90℃. It is miscible with chloroform and ether, soluble in benzene, ethyl acetate, acetone, carbon disulfide, petroleum ether and alcohol, insoluble in water. It has a sweet, aniseed aroma.

Use of Anethole

In food, especially pastry aroma, used as fennel flavor and licorice flavor. Also use in beverages, but also widely use in apricot, quince, bayberry and other flavors and toothpaste and gargles. In addition, Anethole is also use in drug taste and odor correction agents, raw materials for synthetic drugs and color photography sensitizing agents. As a drug, anisole has a certain therapeutic effect on leukopenia cause by chemotherapy or radiotherapy. And leukopenia caused by other reasons. Baisfu Anethole as the production of anisaldehyde consumption proportion is larger. In the presence of p-aminobenzenesulfonic acid,  potassium permanganate or alum sulphate solution to obtain anisaldehyde (p-methoxybenzaldehyde).

Production Method

(1) The fennel oil or anise oil is cool, crystallized, distilled and recrystallized with alcohol to obtain. The fennel oil can also distill, collecting the distillate at 230-234 ° C. Or vacuum distillation, collect 142 ° C (5.60kPa) or 110 ° C (2.7kPa) fractions, to obtain anisole.

(2) In the mixture of anisole and propionaldehyde, add concentrated hydrochloric acid and phosphoric acid at 0℃ to saturate the hydrogen chloride gas. And heat the product with pyridine to remove the hydrogen chloride, that is, anisole is obtain. Hydrobromic acid can also use instead of concentrated hydrochloric acid, and the product is treate with metallic sodium and debrominated to get anisole.