Isolation Of Eugenol From Cloves Lab Report

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Cherokee Turner
Isolation of Eugenol from Cloves The purpose of this experiment was to use steam distillation and extraction (if needed) to isolate eugenol from cloves. The product and its’ purity were to be confirmed using TLC, and by analyzing NMR. The data is to determine if steam distillation is an effective way to obtain oils that are “pure”. The method of steam distillation includes the separation of a compound that is immiscible with water. Steam distillation utilizes Raoults Law pertaining to vapor pressures and the fact that immiscible liquids will boil at a lower temperature than the boiling points of the pure compounds, as to not decompose the compounds. Excess water is used to increase the vapor pressure of water to reach …show more content…

This form of extraction separates compounds in a seperatory funnel based off solubility in water; water soluble or water insoluble. An important feature of this type of extraction is that the liquids are immiscible. This experiment uses an aqueous solvent, water and an organic solvent DCM, which is immiscible in water. The sep funnel will be shaken and vented to ensure the products are mixed and pressure is released, and then left while the two solvents settle into two layers. The more dense layer will form at the bottom (the organic layer in this experiment was more dense). The bottom layer was drained and the top layer was extracted again to ensure that all organic products were separated. If the extraction is successful, then the organic compounds are separated and purified, this can be confirmed by TLC and …show more content…

In an 8:2 hexane: ethyl acetate solvent system, the spots moved 0.5cm and 0.6cm. The co-spot and the spot from the standard had the same Rf value of 0.1277. The spot from the experimental oil had an Rf value of 0.106. Although the separation and the identity of the products were definite on the TLC plate; to improve the results, the solvent system could have been changed to 7:3 or 5:5 Hexane: Ethyl Acetate. Adding more Ethyl Acetate to the system should have provided more separation and the spots should have moved up the plate