Anisen medicine

Hey guys!
Did a lab where we steam distilled oil from anise and isolated the major componenet in order to determine the complete structure of anise oil. The objective is to figure out the location and what kind of 3 carbon side chain we have on the ring. We know the molecular formula to be C10H12O, so we know it has a benzene ring cos of the high amount of carbons to hydrogens. And since we have 10 IHD it means we have a total of 5 rings and pi bonds. Book says they did catalytic hydrogenation on C10H12O and got C10H20O and the gain of 8 hydrogen means it has a total of 4 pi bonds, which means it must contain 1 ring. Anyways they did some tests (I can add if needed) and figured out that it has a methoxy group. So now we know we have a methoxy group, 4 pi bonds, 1 benzene ring, and a 3 carbon side chain which again we do not know the location of the structure of.
Here is the equation if confused!
https://imgur.com/KnSNMhg
Referring to that picture above, what is Q+ referingto? The tricaprylmethylammonium chloride?
I know it has an equation below that where it says Q+=[CH3(CH2)7]3NCH3 but idk what that means.
The first thing I am confused about for figuring out the side chain is that the book states that KMnO4 can oxide side chains all the way down to COOH. We added the tricaprylmethylammonium chloride directly with KMnO4 in order to phase transfer.
What are we phase transferring exactly? And why do we want to oxidize to COOH first in the first place?
Book says that anisene will be organic phase of the two-phase system and their is no need for organic solvent
Now I understand that KMnO4 is very powerful but its slow cos its insoluble in organic phase, so thanks to a quaternary ammonium salt added to a mixture of KMnO4 and benzene, the permanganate ions can dissolve in organic layer. So in this case, the salt would act as a phase-transfer catalyst to make KMnO4 soluble in organic phase, does that sound right guys?
It says benzene is toxic, so we used tricaprylmethylammonium chloride combined directly with KMnO4 to make it soluble, again why are we doing this? Whats the reason behind even using KMnO4, why do we want to make it soluble in organic soln.? Is it because it will help us oxidize the C3H5 group to a COOH group?
Finally here are some questions about some of the steps we did

• Added 0.50 g of crystalline potassium permanganate and 2 drops of tricapryl-methyalmmonium chloride to 10 mL of water

Why is water used here?

• That mixture above is heated in boiling water bath while stirring for 5 minutes to dissolve most of the KMnO4 and then 5 drops of anisene is added, using a medicine dropper.

Why do we add anisene after 5 minutes instead of doing it in the initial step? Are we initially waiting to kind of "prep" the mixture above for anisene?
This kind of silly, but we use a medicine dropper instead of a pasteur pipet? Is it to be accurate with 5 drops?

• It says to heat 15 more minutes after the anisene has been added and then add Hcl until its acidic

Why we use HCl here? What are we protanting? Are we taking away the salt from COO-K+?

• Says to add sodium bisulfite in portions to remove the brown manganes dioxide and to keep adding 6 M HCl during this to keep it acidic

Is the reason behind adding HCl is in order to portante and acidify the permangante ions, which have now been reduced to manganese dioxide and because manganese dioxide is hard to wash, we acidify it and add sodium bisulfite to reduce the manganese dioxide and other unreacted permangante ion to soluble manganese (II) sulfate?

• Finally take a melting point of the methoxybenzoic acid

The book gave us 3 literature melting points where its o,m,p methoxybenzoic acid. My question is once I know if its o,m,p then how does that relate to the 3 carbon side chain? Why is the 3 carbon side chain then put in place of the methoxybenzoic acid? Which kinda ties in earlier, why we oxidize to COOH in first place?
For example I know that if melting point says I have o-methoxybenzoic acid, why does that then mean that my carbon side chain is in the o position? how do the 2 things relate?
THATS IT FOR ME THANKS IN ADVANCES!!!

Hey guys!
Did a lab where we steam distilled oil from anise and isolated the major componenet in order to determine the complete structure of anise oil. The objective is to figure out the location and what kind of 3 carbon side chain we have on the ring. We know the molecular formula to be C10H12O, so we know it has a benzene ring cos of the high amount of carbons to hydrogens. And since we have 10 IHD it means we have a total of 5 rings and pi bonds. Book says they did catalytic hydrogenation on C10H12O and got C10H20O and the gain of 8 hydrogen means it has a total of 4 pi bonds, which means it must contain 1 ring. Anyways they did some tests (I can add if needed) and figured out that it has a methoxy group. So now we know we have a methoxy group, 4 pi bonds, 1 benzene ring, and a 3 carbon side chain which again we do not know the location of the structure of.
Here is the equation if confused!
https://imgur.com/KnSNMhg
Referring to that picture above, what is Q+ referingto? The tricaprylmethylammonium chloride?
I know it has an equation below that where it says Q+=[CH3(CH2)7]3NCH3 but idk what that means.
The first thing I am confused about for figuring out the side chain is that the book states that KMnO4 can oxide side chains all the way down to COOH. We added the tricaprylmethylammonium chloride directly with KMnO4 in order to phase transfer.
What are we phase transferring exactly? And why do we want to oxidize to COOH first in the first place?
Book says that anisene will be organic phase of the two-phase system and their is no need for organic solvent
Now I understand that KMnO4 is very powerful but its slow cos its insoluble in organic phase, so thanks to a quaternary ammonium salt added to a mixture of KMnO4 and benzene, the permanganate ions can dissolve in organic layer. So in this case, the salt would act as a phase-transfer catalyst to make KMnO4 soluble in organic phase, does that sound right guys?
It says benzene is toxic, so we used tricaprylmethylammonium chloride combined directly with KMnO4 to make it soluble, again why are we doing this? Whats the reason behind even using KMnO4, why do we want to make it soluble in organic soln.? Is it because it will help us oxidize the C3H5 group to a COOH group?
Finally here are some questions about some of the steps we did

• Added 0.50 g of crystalline potassium permanganate and 2 drops of tricapryl-methyalmmonium chloride to 10 mL of water

Why is water used here?

• That mixture above is heated in boiling water bath while stirring for 5 minutes to dissolve most of the KMnO4 and then 5 drops of anisene is added, using a medicine dropper.

Why do we add anisene after 5 minutes instead of doing it in the initial step? Are we initially waiting to kind of "prep" the mixture above for anisene?
This kind of silly, but we use a medicine dropper instead of a pasteur pipet? Is it to be accurate with 5 drops?

• It says to heat 15 more minutes after the anisene has been added and then add Hcl until its acidic

Why we use HCl here? What are we protanting? Are we taking away the salt from COO-K+?

• Says to add sodium bisulfite in portions to remove the brown manganes dioxide and to keep adding 6 M HCl during this to keep it acidic

Is the reason behind adding HCl is in order to portante and acidify the permangante ions, which have now been reduced to manganese dioxide and because manganese dioxide is hard to wash, we acidify it and add sodium bisulfite to reduce the manganese dioxide and other unreacted permangante ion to soluble manganese (II) sulfate?

• Finally take a melting point of the methoxybenzoic acid

The book gave us 3 literature melting points where its o,m,p methoxybenzoic acid. My question is once I know if its o,m,p then how does that relate to the 3 carbon side chain? Why is the 3 carbon side chain then put in place of the methoxybenzoic acid? Which kinda ties in earlier, why we oxidize to COOH in first place?
For example I know that if melting point says I have o-methoxybenzoic acid, why does that then mean that my carbon side chain is in the o position? how do the 2 things relate?
THATS IT FOR ME THANKS IN ADVANCES!!!

I was listening to NPR the other day, and they were discussing the resurgence of a Russian medicine. Something along the lines of Advil or Anisen or something.
They were discussing how it used to be sort of a joke, but was undergoing a sort of nationalistic resurgence in popularity after heavy marketing by the wealthy new owners. It also got a boost after the swine flu epidemic.
I can't remember the damn name, and the Googles and searching npr.org with all the keywords I can think of brings me nothing.