Anise Oil

Chemical Properties

Herbaceous annual plant indigenous to Greece and Asia Minor, now extensively cultivated in Europe, in Russia and, to a lesser extent, in India. It has a perpendicular root, an erect cylindrical stalk, alternate leaves, yellowish-white flowers, five-edged carpels and lens-shaped seeds. It flowers in July. The fruits of commerce are grayish-green to dull yellowish-brown in color, 3 to 5 mm long and 1.5 to 2 mm wide, containing about 10% of fixed oil and 1.5 to 4% of essential oil. Parts used are fruits, improperly called seeds. Anise has a history of use as a spice and as a fragrance. It has a sweet, soft, mild flavor with rich effects. The main component responsible for its characteristic taste and smell, as well as for its medicinal properties, is trans-anethole

Chemical Properties

Anise oil or Aniseed oil is obtained by steam distillation of the fruits of Pimpinella anisum L. (Apiaceae). It is a colorless to pale yellow liquid or crystalline mass with a powerful, sweet odor, characteristic of anethole. d²⁰₂₀ 0.980-0.990; n²⁰_D 1.552-1.561;α²⁰_D ?2°to +2°; solubility: 1 vol in 3 vol of 90% ethanol at 20 ℃; fp 15–19.5℃. Themain component of anise oil is (E)-anethole, which is present at a concentration of 87–94% and which determines themelting point of the oil. The oil has now been replaced, to a large extent, by the less expensive star anise oil, which also contains high percentages of anethole, but is still produced, for example, in Hungary and Egypt on a small scale. Anise oil is used for flavoring foods, beverages, and oral care products.

Physical properties

Anise oil is a colorless to pale-yellow, strongly refractive liquid.

Essential oil composition

The seeds yield 2.5% of the oil on steam distillation. The major components of the oil are typically 95% trans-anethole (strong, sweet, anise) and 2% methyl chavicol (strong, sweet, tarragon). TNO (2000) reported presence of 44 compounds in anise. Of these, 23 were hydrocarbons, 8 phenols, 4 alcohols, 3 carbonyl ketones, 1 carbonyl aldehyde, 1 acid and 4 unknown compounds.