This section provides an overview of anisyl acetate (4-methoxybenzyl acetate), covering its manufacturing processes and regulatory status, as well as its applications in the food, flavour, fragrance, cosmetic, and personal-care industries. Also, please check out the introduction to anisyl acetate manufacturers, supply chain issues, anisyl acetate suppliers, and anisyl acetate prices. Sinofi can help you buy anisyl acetate at bulk wholesale prices based on FEMA 2098 and CAS 104-21-2.
Table of Contents
What is Anisyl Acetate?
Anisyl acetate, also named 4-methoxybenzyl acetate, is an aromatic ester valued in both flavour and fragrance work for its soft, sweet, balsamic-floral character. As the acetate ester of anisyl alcohol, it occupies a useful position in the formulator’s palette: rounder and more diffusive than its parent alcohol, yet gentler and less penetrating than many other aromatic esters. Structurally, anisyl acetate combines a para-methoxy-substituted benzyl group with an acetate function. The methoxy group contributes the characteristic anisic and balsamic facets, while the acetate ester moiety lends sweetness and fruity lift. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), anisyl acetate is approved to be used in the flavour and fragrance industries.
Regulatory Status and Safety Considerations
Anisyl acetate has been evaluated by major regulatory bodies such as JECFA, EFSA, RIFM, ECHACHEM, NIST, IFRA, and WHO. It is recognized by the Flavour and Extract Manufacturers Association under FEMA number 2098 and has a corresponding GRAS status for its intended use as a flavouring substance. Formulators should nonetheless confirm current regional regulations, IFRA guidance where fragrance use is involved, and applicable usage limits before finalizing any commercial formulation, as regulatory positions are periodically reviewed and updated.
Sensory Profile
The odour of anisyl acetate is sweet, soft, and balsamic, with floral and faintly fruity-anisic facets. Compared with anisyl alcohol, the ester is sweeter, more rounded, and more diffusive, and it lacks much of the slightly harsh phenolic edge that the alcohol can carry. The aroma is frequently described as reminiscent of ripe fruit underpinned by a powdery, balsamic warmth.
On the palate, anisyl acetate presents fruity and balsamic notes with a mild, sweet character. As it delivers a sweet, creamy, fruity, and faintly anise-like profile, anisyl acetate works well with cooling agents such as WS-23 and eucalyptol and can be incorporated into e-liquid formulations. It serves as a blending and rounding material rather than a sharp top note, lending body and a natural impression to composed flavours when combined with eugenol and ethyl maltol.
Natural Occurrence
Anisyl acetate occurs in nature in small quantities and is reported among the volatile constituents of vanilla and of certain fruits and floral materials. Its natural presence supports its long-standing use in reconstitutions of vanilla and various fruit profiles, where it contributes authenticity and depth.
CAS No.: 104-21-2
According to the American Chemical Society, the CAS number of anisyl acetate is 104-21-2.
CAS Name: 4-Methoxybenzyl acetate
Molecular Formula: C10H12O3
Molecular Mass: 180.20
Appearance: Colourless to light yellow, clear liquid.
JECFA Number: 873
Food Chemicals Codex Listed: Yes
Boiling Point: 270.00 °C. @ 760.00 mm Hg
Solubility: Soluble in dipropylene glycol and fixed oils; insoluble in water
Other Names:
♦ Benzenemethanol, 4-methoxy-, 1-acetate
♦ Benzyl alcohol, p-methoxy-, acetate
♦ Benzenemethanol, 4-methoxy-, acetate
♦ p-Anisyl alcohol, acetate
♦ Cassie ketone
♦ p-Methoxybenzyl acetate
♦ p-Methoxybenzyl alcohol acetate
♦ 4-Methoxybenzyl acetate
♦ 4-Methoxybenzenemethanol acetate
♦ 4-Anisyl acetate
♦ 1-Methoxy-4-acetoxymethylbenzene
Anisyl Acetate Odor
Odor Strength: Medium.
Substantivity: 100 hours at 100.00 %
Odor Description: At 100.00 %, sweet, floral, balsamic, with a fruity-anisic nuance.
FEMA Number 2098
According to the Flavour and Extract Manufacturers Association (FEMA), the FEMA number of anisyl acetate is 2098.
Bulk Anisyl Acetate Manufacturers
The bulk production of anisyl acetate is served by a layered network of primary producers concentrated in Asia. Top anisyl acetate manufacturers such as Symrise, Ventos, Givaudan, and Firmenich produce anisyl acetate at scale, typically by esterifying anisyl alcohol with acetic acid, followed by distillation to flavour- and fragrance-grade. They are the source of genuine bulk volume. China is the dominant centre of bulk anisyl acetate production and the primary source of competitively priced material.
Sinofi is a bulk anisyl acetate manufacturer in China, and we have a manufacturing facility with 2,500 square meters for the production of 4-methoxybenzyl acetate. We supply high-quality anisyl acetate at bulk prices and serve the food, flavour, fragrance, cosmetic, and personal care industries worldwide.
Manufacturing Process of Anisyl Acetate
The industrial manufacture of anisyl acetate is an acylation of a sensitive benzylic alcohol in which the choice of acylating agent is decisive. While direct esterification with acetic acid is conceptually simple, the electron-rich substrate makes it prone to ether formation and resinification under acidic heat, so acetylation with acetic anhydride under mild, often base-catalysed, conditions is generally preferred for its high conversion, cleaner product, and simpler purification.
Raw Materials
The principal raw material is anisyl alcohol, which is itself typically obtained upstream by reduction of anisaldehyde (4-methoxybenzaldehyde) or by related routes within the aroma-chemical supply chain. The quality of the incoming alcohol, particularly its purity and the absence of residual aldehyde and coloured impurities, directly affects the colour and odour of the finished ester.
Route One: Direct (Fischer) Esterification with Acetic Acid
In the Fischer approach, anisyl alcohol is heated with an excess of acetic acid in the presence of an acid catalyst. The reaction proceeds through protonation of the carboxylic acid carbonyl, nucleophilic attack by the alcohol, and loss of water. Because the reaction is a reversible equilibrium, conversion is driven forward either by using a large excess of acetic acid or, more effectively, by removing water as it is formed, commonly by azeotropic distillation with an entrainer or by operating under conditions that allow continuous water removal.
Route Two: Acetylation with Acetic Anhydride
The acetic anhydride route is generally preferred for the industrial manufacture of anisyl acetate. Acetic anhydride is a more powerful acylating agent than acetic acid, and the reaction is irreversible; it proceeds essentially to completion, with acetic acid liberated as the by-product. This eliminates the need for water removal and allows high conversion under comparatively mild conditions.
Bulk Anisyl Acetate Suppliers
Bulk anisyl acetate is available through a layered ecosystem of major producers, specialty distributors, ingredient houses, and small-quantity resellers. Top anisyl acetate suppliers like Symrise, Ventos, Givaudan, and Firmenich primarily serve their own compounding operations and major industrial accounts, and they offer the highest assurance of consistency, documentation, and regulatory support, generally at premium pricing and with account-based commercial relationships.
Sinofi is a bulk anisyl acetate supplier in China, and we have a warehouse with 1,200 square meters for high-quality 4-methoxybenzyl acetate. We sell different grades of anisyl acetate at wholesale prices, serving end-users in food, flavour, fragrance, cosmetic, and personal care industries.
Supply Chain of Anisyl Acetate
The anisyl acetate supply chain runs from widely available upstream feedstocks, through a concentrated manufacturing tier led by Asia, into a flexible distribution layer, and on to a broad downstream base of formulators, end-product manufacturers, and consumers, all bound together by regulatory, logistics, and quality functions that operate across every tier.
Overview of the Supply Chain Structure
The anisyl acetate supply chain is best understood as a vertical flow organized into three broad stages: an upstream stage supplying raw materials, a midstream stage in which the ester is manufactured and distributed, and a downstream stage in which the material is formulated into compositions and incorporated into finished goods for consumers. The chain narrows at the production tier, where a relatively concentrated set of manufacturers converts widely available inputs into the specialty ester, and then broadens again downstream as the material disperses across many formulators, product categories, and end uses.
The structure can be summarized tier by tier as follows.
- Upstream raw materials. Anisyl alcohol, the principal feedstock, together with an acetylating agent (acetic anhydride or acetic acid).
- Manufacturers. Producers that carry out the esterification and purification to produce flavour and fragrance grades.
- Distribution. Ingredient houses, specialty distributors, traders, and online B2B marketplaces that hold inventory and provide documentation and access.
- Formulators. Flavour and fragrance compounders, including the major integrated houses, that blend the ester into finished compositions.
- End markets. Manufacturers of fine fragrance and personal care, food and beverage, and household and air-care products.
- Consumers. The retail channel and end users who purchase the finished goods.
Wholesale and Buy Anisyl Acetate in Bulk
Sourcing anisyl acetate in bulk rewards a disciplined process. The purchasing manager should define a precise grade and specification; shortlist a mix of cost-competitive producers and well-documented distributors.
Identify and Shortlist Supply Sources
Anisyl acetate is available through several channels, each with a different balance of price, assurance, and flexibility. Primary producers, concentrated in Asia, particularly China, offer the most competitive bulk pricing. Specialty distributors and ingredient houses in Europe and North America compete on documentation, reliability, and service.
Specification and Documentation Checklist
For each bulk lot, the anisyl acetate buyer should require and retain the following and treat any missing documentation as a qualification failure rather than a paperwork delay.
- Certificate of analysis confirming purity and key parameters for the specific lot.
- Safety data sheet, with particular attention to handling, storage, and transport sections.
- Food-grade or regulatory confirmation for flavour use, including FEMA reference.
- Specification sheet stating the typical value.
- Allergen, origin, and other declarations as required by the application and destination market.
As a bulk anisyl acetate manufacturer and supplier in China, we wholesale this ingredient to end users in the food, flavour, fragrance, cosmetics, and personal care industries. We also supply 4-methoxybenzyl acetate to small customers. Normally, they want to buy anisyl acetate in small quantities. To serve them, we can sell anisyl acetate at bulk prices and provide a one-stop purchasing service.
Anisyl Acetate Prices (USD/Kg)
Flavour Grade Anisyl Acetate Prices (GC Content >=98%)
| Volume | Unit Price | Shipment |
| 50g | 12 USD | Express |
| 500g | 59 USD | Express |
| 1Kg | 85 USD/Kg | Express |
| 25Kg | >=35% cheaper | Express |
| 100Kg-Above | negotiable | Express / Sea |
Anisyl acetate prices run roughly USD 40–80/kg for 25 kg, depending on grade and supplier, while bulk fragrance-grade material almost certainly trades at far lower prices. Buyers must distinguish at least three tiers: lab/research grade (highest per-kg), flavour/fragrance and food grade (FCC/FG, ≥98%), and bulk commercial grade.
Furthermore, the above price quotations of anisyl acetate do not include the express shipping fee. The reason is that the shipment cost may exceed the sample value of 4-methoxybenzyl acetate. However, the wholesale prices for anisyl acetate will be much lower than for small orders. Please contact us for more details.
Anisyl Acetate Specification
| Appearance | Colourless to light yellow, clear liquid. |
| Odor: | Sweet, floral, balsamic, with a fruity-anisic nuance. |
| Purity (GC) | >=98% |
| Acid Value (mg KOH/g) | <=1.0 |
| Refractive Index (20°C) | 1.512 – 1.515 |
| Specific Gravity (at 25℃/25℃) | 1.109 – 1.111 |
Anisyl Acetate Uses
Anisyl acetate earns its place in the formulator’s palette through a sweet, powdery, floral-balsamic character and dependable blending behaviour that translates into a remarkably broad set of uses.
Uses in Fragrance
Fragrance is the largest application area. Anisyl acetate is valued in particular for two effects: its contribution to sweet floral accords and its ability to deliver the powdery character that remains in steady demand in modern perfumery.
Floral Accords
The material is widely used to construct and reinforce sweet floral notes. It is a classic component of accords such as lilac, acacia (cassie), mimosa, violet, honeysuckle, and hawthorn, where it lends sweetness and a soft, natural floralcy without harshness. It is frequently described as a standard tool for achieving powdery floral effects, and it pairs well with materials such as cyclamen aldehyde to produce distinctive, pleasing results.
Powdery, Balsamic, and Heliotrope Effects
Beyond named florals, anisyl acetate is employed to impart powdery, balsamic, and heliotrope-like warmth to a composition. These effects support gourmand, oriental, and chypre structures, where the material adds depth, sweetness, and a soft fruity-balsamic signature, typically in the heart and base of the formula, where its tenacity becomes an asset.
Functional and Fine Perfumery
The compound is used in both fine fragrance and functional perfumery. In fine fragrance, it contributes complexity and a comforting sweetness; in functional applications, it is found in soaps and detergents, air fresheners and scented candles, and body sprays and lotions, where its stability and pleasant character make it a useful workhorse. Its reasonable performance in such bases broadens its commercial relevance well beyond fine perfume.
Uses in Flavour
In flavour work, anisyl acetate is used to add fruity, sweet, and balsamic roundness, and it performs as a blending material that lends authenticity and depth. Common applications include:
- Vanilla and cream: reinforcing the sweet, balsamic body of vanilla and vanilla-bean profiles.
- Berry and stone fruit: supporting strawberry, raspberry, currant, blackcurrant, cherry, and plum notes with a soft, ripe roundness.
- Brown and confectionery flavours: contributing to chocolate, cocoa, and baked-good profiles that benefit from a sweet, balsamic underlay.
- Nut and other notes: assisting almond and coconut effects, and complementing anise and licorice profiles with sweetness and warmth.
The material is used at low levels in finished flavours; taste characteristics described at around thirty parts per million include fruity, floral, vanilla, coconut, honey, cocoa, anise, and licorice facets. It may be applied in food flavourings for confectionery, baked goods, and beverages, and in flavours for alcoholic and other drinks where a sweet, fruity dimension is desired. Its heat stability makes it suitable for applications involving elevated temperatures, such as baking.
Uses in Cosmetics and Personal Care
In cosmetics and personal care, anisyl acetate functions primarily as a fragrance ingredient, enhancing the sensory experience of products such as lotions, creams, body sprays, shampoos, and conditioners. It provides a sweet, warm, long-lasting scent and blends readily with other fragrance components, which makes it useful in the fragranced portion of a wide range of personal-care formulations.
Uses in Household and Industrial Products
The compound is also used in household and air-care products, including cleaning products, air fresheners, and scented candles, where it contributes a sweet, balsamic note and helps round out home-fragrance formulations. In addition to its aromatic roles, anisyl acetate can serve as an intermediate or building block in organic synthesis, reflecting the general reactivity of an aromatic acetate ester, though its dominant commercial use remains as a flavour and fragrance ingredient.
Anisyl Acetate Benefits
Anisyl acetate endures in the formulator’s palette because it combines a desirable sensory character with practical performance, broad versatility, formulation efficiency, and commercial accessibility.
Sensory Benefits
The foremost benefit of anisyl acetate is the quality it brings to a composition. Its sweet, soft, powdery, floral-balsamic character, with fruity and faintly anisic facets, adds warmth, body, and a natural impression that is difficult to achieve with sharper materials. Rather than dominating a formula, it rounds and harmonises it, smoothing rough edges and lending a comforting sweetness. In flavour work, it contributes a ripe, balsamic fullness, and in fragrance, it delivers the powdery effect that remains in steady demand. Because the compound also occurs naturally in materials such as vanilla and certain fruits, it lends an authentic, natural impression to reconstitutions, which is a meaningful advantage when naturalness is valued.
Performance Benefits
Anisyl acetate performs well under the practical conditions of real formulations, a benefit distinct from its smell in isolation.
- Tenacity and persistence. With comparatively low volatility, it functions as a middle-to-base note with good substantivity, helping a composition last and contributing a degree of fixative effect. Reports of substantivity on a scent strip extending to many hours illustrate this persistence.
- Heat stability. Its stability at elevated temperatures makes it suitable for demanding applications such as baked goods and for functional bases like soaps and detergents, where less robust materials would degrade.
- Diffusion and blending. It is diffusive enough to make its presence felt while blending smoothly with a wide range of partners, including balsams, narcotic florals, and materials such as cyclamen aldehyde, with which it produces particularly pleasing effects.
Versatility Benefits
A single material that serves many purposes reduces complexity and inventory for a formulator, and anisyl acetate is unusually versatile. It is effective across both fragrance and flavour, in both fine and functional perfumery, and across numerous accords and profiles, from lilac, acacia, mimosa, and violet florals to vanilla, berry, cherry, chocolate, and almond flavours. This breadth means the same drum of material can support a varied portfolio of products, which is an efficiency benefit in its own right.
Anisyl Acetate in E-Liquid and Vaping Products
Anisyl acetate is an aroma chemical with a sweet, floral, balsamic, and powdery character, valued as a flavour and fragrance ingredient. Like many food-flavour materials, it can appear in the flavoured e-liquids used in electronic cigarettes and other vaping devices, where it would contribute sweet, vanilla, cherry, anise, or floral nuances.
Role in E-Liquid Formulation
E-liquids are typically a mixture of the humectants propylene glycol and vegetable glycerine, nicotine in many products, and flavouring chemicals, which are heated by a coil to form an inhalable aerosol. Flavour is a primary driver of consumer demand for these products.
Regulatory Status
In the United States, manufacturers wishing to market flavoured vaping products must submit premarket tobacco product applications through the United States Food and Drug Administration’s Premarket Tobacco Product Application (PMTA). In the European Union, vaping products are regulated under the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), which sets out its own notification and ingredient requirements.
A Tobacco Flavour with Spicy and Sweet Using Anisyl Acetate
Include the following ingredients (by weight, %):
Star anise oil, 0.55; menthyl acetate, 0.035; clove oil, 0.3; isobutyl cinnamate, 0.006; carrot seed oil, 0.07; megastigmatrienone, 0.18; Peru extract, 8; ylang-ylang oil, 0.0048; benzoin resin, 0.5; 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, 0.00035; clove bud oil, 0.04; hawthorn tincture, 8; p-anisaldehyde, 0.09; eugenol, 0.025; isovaleric acid, 0.55; myristica oil, 0.024; 2-methylpyrazine, 0.00025; 7-hydroxycitronellal, 0.004; cinnamyl acetate, 0.0025; ethyl maltol, 3; anisyl acetate, 0.01; 4-methoxyacetophenone, 2; isoamyl isovalerate, 0.025; vanillin, 2; 2-acetylfuran, 0.055; isobutyl acetate, 0.04; propylene glycol, 20; malic acid, 2.4; alcohol, rest.
In conclusion, anisyl acetate is a widely traded aroma chemical used in food, fragrance, flavour, cosmetic, and personal-care product manufacturing. As a bulk manufacturer and supplier of anisyl acetate in China, we offer various grades of 4-methoxybenzyl acetate at wholesale prices to clients worldwide.