Nutmeg Essay

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Nutmeg Soap Background Nutmeg is the fruit of Myristica fragrans houttayn, a tree commonly found in Indonesia and the West Indies. Nutmeg oil is used primarily for food flavoring. Its characteristic odor is due to safrole derivatives like myristicin and elemicin. Extraction of nutmeg with ethyl ether will produce trimyristin along with a very small quantity of myristicin. Pure trimyristin can easily be isolated by recrystallization with ethanol. Soaps are alkali metal salts of aliphatic fatty acids having from ten to eighteen carbon atoms. The hydrocarbon chain is oil-soluble, while the carboxylate anion end is water-soluble. The number of carbon atoms is extremely important for the utilization of soap. If there are less than ten carbon atoms, it will not cause the oils to emulsify, and if there are more than eighteen carbon atoms, the salt will not be water-soluble and will not form a colloidal dispersion. Soaps are usually obtained from saponification (basic hydrolysis) of commercially available triglyceride esters (fats and oils), and their preparation dates back to antiquity. Trimyristin (glyceryl trimyristate) is a triglyceride (or triacylglycerol) obtained from nutmeg by extraction with boiling ether under reflux. Saponification of trimyristin produces the sodium salt of myristic acid, CH3(CH2) 12CO2Na, which is a soap having a linear aliphatic chain. Glycerol is produced as a side-product. Acidification produces myristic acid, a fatty acid. Reactions with Fe3+ and Ca2+ cations produce insoluble acid salts (iron soaps and calcium soaps). Cautions! • Ethyl ether has a very low boiling point (40oC). It is also explosive in air, and causes unconsciousness. Handle only in the hood with the glass panel down as far as possible. • Solid NaOH and its solutions are strongly basic and will cause

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