In order to achieve separation within the compound trimyristin from ground nutmeg seeds, employing a process known as extraction, a process of separating a single component to isolate and purify chemical compounds from a mixture. There are two types of extractions, solid-liquid, and liquid-liquid. The separation in this experiment was conducted through not only filtration to separate and purify the triglyceride trimyristin from the nutmeg, simple distillation to remove the solvent from the product, but also the suction filtration to isolate the crystals. By using the solvent, dichloromethane the extraction of trimyristin isolated the crude oils from nutmeg and then acetone was used to help in dissolving the crystallized product. Unfortunately, my material did not come out correctly, it turned out to be a very waxy solid that was not able to be recrystallized, no matter how much acetone I used to change the texture, it still remained the same. Despite my error within the lab, It didn 't stop me from continuing to determine the melting point. …show more content…
If you have a sample of the actual material, then the best way to compare melting points is to do a melting point test by mixing the known pure with the uncertain product. The melting points ranged from 46°C-51°C. The melting point illustrates that the sample of trimyristin obtained was pure. The value was lower than what the trimyristin was stated to the weight given that impurities lower the MP. It takes less energy to disrupt crystal lattice when impurities are present given that it makes the melting point become lower and broader. During recrystallization, the trimyristin was lost because the sand bath was used to dissolve the solid and acetone was used to purify the impurities and since acetone has a low BP, the more heat used caused the material to