[treadlightly]

I have this question from my OChem lab that is supposed to be a challenge question. My instructor said that it is a little out of the scope of my class' understanding, so I thought someone on here could walk me through this problem.

A certain type of oil has 10-percent of a minor component that could be hydrolyzed to produce acetic acid and eugenol. What is the minor component's structure if it has the molecular formula C₁₂H₁₄O₃?

[Borek]

Start checking formulas for acetic acid and eugenol. What does it mean "hydrolyzes"? What compounds can hydrolyze?

[treadlightly]

The only compound I can think of is water, since you can use it for hydrolysis.
What else am I missing here?

[ziqquratu]

You are correct - you do USE water for a hydrolysis reaction, which is needed because in a hydrolysis you ADD water to the molecule that is being hydrolysed - specifically, you add water across a bond, breaking that bond so that one proton (from H₂O) ends up attached to one product and the OH attaches to the other product.

As Borek said, look up the structures of eugenol and acetic acid. Can you think of a way to connect them together which would result in water being produced (since you've got the hydrolysed products, you can think backwards - which in this case is a condensation reaction - to try and find the original compound)?