Use
p-Anisaldehyde occurs in many essential
oils, often together with anethole. It is a colorless to slightly yellowish liquid with a sweet, mimosa, hawthorn odor. p-Anisaldehyde can be hydrogenated to
anise alcohol and readily oxidizes to anisic acid when exposed to air. Synthetic
routes to anisaldehyde start from p-cresyl methyl ether, which is oxidized, for
example, by manganese dioxide or by oxygen or peroxy compounds in the presence
of transition metal catalysts .Another industrial process uses electrochemical oxidation in the presence of
lower aliphatic alcohols via the corresponding anisaldehyde dialkyl acetal .
Anisaldehyde may also be produced by methylation of 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde,
which is easily obtained by oxidation of p-cresol or by Vilsmeier formylation
of anisol.