Has anybody actually tried this? What were the results? Someone I know is trying to figure out if this is economically feasable, and if any other methods of purification are required beyond the distillation. Does anyone happen to know what the safrol content of raw Star Anise oil typically would be?

... near 0%.

I saw (somewhere on this site I think) that star anise has a percentage of safrol in it. maybe read it somewhere. I'm not talking about anise seed.

Correct, that is misinformation. Star anise oil contain no useful amounts of safrole, even if I bet that it is detectable in most samples. 'Detectable' by no means equals 'useful', as exemplified by this:

Post 420450 (missing)

(pHarmacist: "Drugs on Money", Law and Order)