Clove Oil Lab Report

Introduction

The clove tree is a tropical plant that grows in Indonesia and has been a prominent factor in the trading industry for centuries in the form of buds or extracted oil1. Clove spice is a popular cooking flavouring and clove oils are used as antimicrobial and pain relieving remedies in the primarily the dental field. The extraction of clove oil from buds is an important process in developing remedies for the professional medical industry. The main component of clove oil is the organic molecule Eugenol and it is found in quantities of up to 82% in the clove bud1.

Eugenol is a phenylpropene1 and its boiling point 254˚C2, however when it forms a positive azeotrope with water, its steam boiling point lowers to that just below waters boiling

Diagram of Acetyl Eugenol isolating into Eugenol

Methods and Materials

Steam Distillation

Ground cloves (10.095g) were weighed and placed into a 250ml round bottom flask with 100ml distilled water and a stir bar. A Williams Kit steam distillation apparatus was set up with a heating mantle, lab jack and a 100ml receiving flask. The clove solution was heated to a boil and reduced until 25ml of distillate was collected, the process was repeated with the adding of 50ml of pre heated water. The volume of distillate collected was 50ml and was a milky colour.

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Seperatory funnel and Evaporation

Ethyl acetate (15ml) was used to rinse the receiving flask and the solution was added to a separatory funnel apparatus. The funnel was shaken and the aqueous ethyl acetate layer containing Eugenol was drained to an Erlenmeyer flask. The bottom layer was put through this process again with another 15ml of ethyl acetate. The ethyl acetate layers were combined and was mixed with saturated sodium chloride to act as a drying agent, the mixture was placed in the funnel again and separated. The remaining ethyl acetate layer was then mixed with an anhydrous salt sodium sulphate. The mixture was then placed through a gravity filtration with a pre weighted flask and run through an evaporator. The mixture observed was too watery, so the mixture was put through the seperatory funnel again, dried with sodium sulphate, and put through the evaporated again.

Dilutions of 1:20 of ethyl acetate were made of the extracted clove oil, commercial clove oil and pure Eugenol and calipers were used to place on the indicated line of origin 1.5 to 2mm apart and were not covered by the solvent on a prepared TLC strip. The jar was sealed and the hexane rose to within 5mm of the top. The dried strip was viewed under UV light, sketched and then stained with a solution of 2% P-Anisaldehyde in 4% Sulfuric Acid and 96% Ethanol. This process was repeated with also a solvent of ethyl acetate and a 50:50 ration of hexane and ethyl acetate. The TLC strip was sketched with Chemdraw, analyzed and Rf values were