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Isolation & Identification of the Major Constituent of Clove Oil with Steam Distillation

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Isolation & Identification of the Major Constituent of Clove Oil with Steam Distillation The purpose of this laboratory experiment was to isolate and characterize clove oil in order to understand how to isolate organic compounds with high boiling points, how to perform and interpret qualitative tests for organic compound functionality, and to continue to learn how to perform and interpret IR spectrometry. Steam distillation was used in order to prevent the organic compound from decomposing at temperatures approaching the compound's boiling point. The essential oil of a plant is a mixture of volatile, water-insoluble components that exhibits the odor and other characteristics of the plant. In this experiment the essential oils …show more content…

The fresh clove was then combined with water in the distilling flask and distilled until very little liquid remains in the boiling flask. The color of the product began to turn light cloudy yellow as it began to boil indicating the beginning production of clove oil. With a 9-inch pipet was used to add water through the condenser to keep the flask no more than half way full. Clove oil was extracted from the distillate in 1 mL increments every 5 to 10 minutes. The distillation and extraction process was approximately 37 minutes with 7 mL of distillate recovered. The product recovered was a light yellow liquid color with the same strong, sweet, cinnamon odor as the raw clove. 1 mL of dichloromethane solution was used to rinse the Hickman still and was then transferred to the centrifuge tube. Another 2 mL more of dichloromethane was added and shaken vigorously. Upon shaking the the mixture turned a cloudy white color with two layers resulting. The major component of clove oil was extracted with two more 3 mL portions of dichloromethane solution. The mixture was allowed to cool and left in the hood overnight to dry. The next day an orange goopy textured product resulted. The extracts were then dried and combined with anhydrous sodium sulfate, then evaporated with dry air under the hood in a warm water bath. The liquid was cooled and had an initial weighing of 0.5887g. It was reweighed several minutes later with a final

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