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Don

What's going on with this Anise oil?

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Finally sourced some anise oil to add to my soft plastics. The bottles are tiny at .125 fl oz. I opened a new bottle and added about 8 drops to 5 oz. of plastic just before pouring.

First off, while my garage reaked of licorice the baits did not get infused with scent at all :huh:. It is indeed oil and not extract which would be water based. Figured the amt. added to 5oz. was adequate, no?

Secondly, and more importantly, as soon as I poured the oil drops in I replaced the cap on the bottle and placed it out of my way. When I was cleaning up, I noticed the bottle's contents had crystalized into what looked like a frozen mass. Weird thing is that it was still warm to the touch. Unlike anything I've ever seen before. And it has remained in this state now 30 some hours later... any idea why this oil would have done this? And will it return to it's natural liquid state? I was in an cold garage but temps were well above freezing as I had the heater going all afternoon. And like I mentioned, the oil is not frozen, just completely crystallized.... I'm stumped.

Thanks

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Anis oil tends to gel as it ages. To work properly it needs to be relatively fresh. I havnt used it myself with plastic but to get the best out of it and so the volatiles are not cooked off like most scents it needs to be added at the end of the heating process and fully incorporated just before pouring.

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The microwave solved my problems (thanks again) but now I find I have to pour in 0.125 oz. into 6 oz. just to get the baits to smell when they come out. Does this ratio seem right? With the price I paid for the oil it isn't worth it. Are the anise scents that come in spray form (pro-cure, etc.) ok to drop into plastic or are they water based. The only local place I could find anise oil was at $2.49 CND for 0.125 oz vials... that's $10 for half oz. I purchased... talk about feeling bent over on that one, lol.

Thanks

Don

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Don, I imagine the anis oil has possibly been watered down a bit or adulterated in some way as its basically aimed at the aromatherapy market for that price and in those sizes. I used to make stock food for ratites (emu and ostrich) and I used to use it as an attractant in that. To get a day old chick that weighs around 1 pound up to a slaughter weight of 285 to 300 lb in 10.5 months you really have to know what you are doing. I used to buy it by the litre (= 1.057 US Quart) and I used to pay anywhere from NZ$50 to 65 per litre (about US$34 to 44) so at that price they saw you coming and you are buying from tossers and rip off merchants. (remind me to sell you some SPs when I get going and I will make a fortune if you have any money left. LOL). See if you can get some good stuff and try that. I take it you are in Canada. Let me know where and I will see if I can dig out an essential oil supplier for you. Anis oil is a very good product and works well with all sorts of fish once they develop a taste for it. Probably apart from mixing it in with the plastic just before you pour the other best way to apply it if you are using barrier proof bags is to mix it together with a very light mild refined tasteless carrier oil which has all the volatiles and other byproducts removed and put about a desert spoon of that in with the SPs when you package them . That way the anis will impregnate the baits while they are sitting. A good oil might be safflower I imagine as that refined is pretty tasteless and relatively colourless at the same time. Whatever you do keep the amount of that down. You want the anis to work not just put a coating on the SPs that will wash off in the first minute and make the baits all oily and difficult to handle. Both methods used together will be far better than one on its own. There is probably a better carrier again. Let me think about it.

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Hi Don, No I know nothing much about making SPs yet and have yet to make my first batch but am wanting to and keen to try so very shortly I hope when I get some stuff down. Have spent a bit of time perusing this and other sites to learn as much as I can prior to and can see there are some extremely knowledgeable and experienced people here so the learning curve should be greatly accelerated and I shouldnt make too many of the mistakes I would otherwise make. Still like anything like this the learning and experience curve when it comes to the more sophisticated aspects will continue for a long time I expect with experience being the greatest teacher in the longrun. I know a bit about essential oils as I spent a fair bit of time mucking about with them and prefered to use them with feedstuffs rather than mixing in anti-biotics which invariably affect the immune system and with continual use dont do what they should and can slow growth rates. Anis as I said is a very good fish attractant and works very well once they develop a taste for it. If you can get some good relatively fresh oil it should work well. Try the people at the link 152 has recommended perhaps, they look alright. Canada and the States is pretty well served with essential oil suppliers. Try to obtain it from a major importer or supplier rather than someone fairly well down the chain where it has often been tampered with is/has been poorly packaged and treated and often excessively priced. If you deal with the main importer/suppliers they are much more likely to have recent stock that is a lot better priced as well without all the middlemen in the chain. The Thomas directory is also a good place to start looking to find suppliers. Good luck with your efforts.

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Don & others, One thing I should have said perhaps was there are 2 basic forms of anis. One is derived from traditional anis seed a herbaceous annual native to the Mediterranean region and Egypt transported and grown everywhere the Romans went, and the other is from Star Anis a native of China. There is a bit of difference in taste but for all intents and purposes they are the same with the stronger generally coming from Star Anis which is distilled from the seed of a evergreen tree or bush which is cheaper to produce. (5 to 8% essential oil c/f 2.5% for anis seed). Anis Seed is closely related to Parsley and Fennel while Star Anis is more closely related to Magnolia. Today most is derived from Star Anis or adulterated with it. Either work well. You can buy dried Star Anis from Chinese (Southern) , Vietnamese, and even Phillipino shops as they all use it in cookery. Some of this ground up and added to SPs would probably work well in my opinion and impregnate and colour the plastic at the same time. Interested in any feedback if someone wants to try it. Its the anethole (85 to 90%) part of the essential oil that gives it its attractant abilities.

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