Isolation and Characterization of Eugenol Form Cloves

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Title: Experiment 1- Isolation & Characterisation of Eugenol from cloves Objectives: 1. To isolate eugenol and other volatile natural products from cloves by steam distillation 2. To characterize eugenol by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) and IR spectroscopy. Introduction: Clove oil is an essential oil extracted from the clove plant, Syzygium aromaticum or Eugenia caryophyllate and Eugenia aomaticum. There are only small differences between these species and many consider them to be essentially the same. The clove oil has only three major components: eugenol, acetyleugenol or eugenol acetate, and β-caryophyllene. In this experiment, eugenol is isolated from ground cloves by steam distillation and is identified by infrared spectroscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). Eugenol is acidic because of the phenol group. It has many medical properties, especially as a pain killer and aid to digestion, and is used widely in toothpaste and dental preparations. Eugenol acetate is a type of ester. It is used as fragrance and flavorings. Caryophyllene is a hydrocarbon that belongs to the family of sesquiterpenes. Eugenol acetate and caryophyllene are natural products and can be separated from eugenol through acid-base extraction. The structure of the three major components contained in clove oil is shown below. Figure 1.0- Eugenol Figure 2.0-Eugenol acetate Figure 3.0- β-caryophyllene Procedure: Isolation of the Essential Oil: 1. About 10g of fresh cloves (stored in a closed container) is weighted and a mortar and pestle is used to grind them. 2. The powder is transferred to a 500mL distillation flask and 200mL of distilled water is added.A simple distillation apparatus is assembled as shown. If available, plastic clips are used. 3. In a 100mL round bottom flask, 60mL of water is poured and the level of the

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