Maria, I do NOT think they are interchangable.
From the Washington Post:
Anise oil is a pure, highly concentrated essential oil distilled from anise seeds, while anise extract is a diluted solution made by dissolving that oil in alcohol and water.
My mom used to get hers from the local drugstore. I'm looking at my bottle here and it was from Walgreens.
This may be a reason why certain versions don't taste like you remember. Also, back in the days when I was a kid, our local grocery store (Krogers) carried vanilla extract and THAT was it. And they didn't need to put PURE on the label then, because it already was.
Also, I would NOT use a Loranne product. I ordered their pure pistachio extract and it tastes/smells exactly like almond extract. Get it from a drug store.
PS: NFRC: And for today's life challenge, I'm driving to the spine walk-in clinic because my right sciatic nerve went out 10 days ago and I'm tired on trying to numb my gluts with frozen edamame packages.
Oh...I guess this post was kind of food related.