Table 1.

Occurrence of safrole, methyleugenol, estragole, trans-anethole, and myristicin found in essential oils (EO) from herbs and spices.

	Safrole	Methyleugenol	Estragole (=Methylchavicol)	trans-Anethole	Myristicin
CAS N°	94-59-7	93-15-2	140-67-0	4180-23-8	607-91-0
Structural formula
IUPAC name	5-prop-2-enyl-1,3-benzodioxole	1,2-dimethoxy-4-prop-2-enylphenol	1-methoxy-4-prop-2-enylbenzene	1-methoxy-4-(E)-prop-1-enyl]benzene	4-methoxy-6-prop-2-enyl-1,3-benzodioxole
Synonyms (select.)	5-Allyl-1,3-benzodioxole Shikimole Safrene Sassafras Rhyuno oil	4-Allyl-1,2-dimethoxybenzene 4-Allylveratrole Eugenol methyl ether Eugenyl methyl ether	4-Allylanisole 1-Allyl-4-methoxybenzene p-Allylanisole Chavicol methyl ether Tarragon	(E)-Anethole p-Propenylanisole 4-Propenylanisole Anise camphor (E)-1-Methoxy-4-(prop-1-en-1-yl)benzene	6-Allyl-4-methoxy-1,3-benzodioxole 5-Allyl-1-methoxy-2,3-(methylenedioxy) benzene Asaricin
	Occurrence in essential oils (%) + (reference)
Allspice berries		62.7 [14]
Allspice berries		4–9 [15]
Allspice berries		8.8 [16]
Anise seeds		0.1–0.2 [17]	1.44–7.08 [17]	79.49–89.99 [17]
Anise seeds			0.5–2.3 [18]	76.9–93.7 [18]
Anise seeds				>90 [18]
Chinese Star anise seeds			0.5–5.5 [19,20]	88.5–92 [19,21,22]
Japanese Star Anise seeds	6.6 [23]	9.8 [23]		1.2 [23]	3.5 [23]
Sweet Fennel aerial parts			2–3 [24]	9.7–54.7 [24]
Sweet Fennel roots					2.5–10 [24]
Basil oil Ocimum basilicum leaves		9.27–87.04 [25,26,27,28]	0–81 [25,26,27,28]
Western tarragon		0.51–28.87 [29,30]	17.26–75 [30,31]
Eastern tarragon	no Safrole (but 21.45–38.90 Elemicin) [32]	9.59–28.40 [32]	0.29–0.31 [32]
Nutmeg kernel Eastern Indonesia	1.6 (and 1.7 Elemicin) [33]	16.7 (and 16.8. Methyl-iso-eugenol) [33]			2.3 [33]
Nutmeg kernel Sri Lanka	1.4 (and 2.1 Elemicin) [34]	0.6 [34]			4.9 [34]