Trimystin Essay

349 Words2 Pages
Trimyristin is found naturally in many vegetable fats and oils. Trimyristin is a white to yellowish-gray solid that is insoluble in water, but soluble in ethanol, benzene, cloroform, dichloromethane, and ether. It is a saturated fat which is the triglyceride of myristic acid. The purpose of this lab was to extract the fat trimyristin from the spice nutmeg by use of organic solvent, methylene chloride. Nutmeg comes from an East Indian tree. The seeds are rich compounds known as triglycerides, which are made up of glycerol esterfied to three fatty acids. Five grams of nutmeg was weighed and mixed with 50ml of mthylene chloride in a 100ml round bottom flask. A ruflux apparatus was set up and the mixture was brought to a boil in a steam bath. The mixture was refluxed to avoid evaporation while it boiled for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes the mixture was cooled and then filtered through fluted filter paper into a 250ml round bottom flask. The methyene chloride dissolved the trimystrin and would pass through the filter paper leaving the other nutmeg solids behind. The solution was then distilled to get rid of the methlyene chloride and isolate the trimyristin. Methlyene chloride was a good solvent in this case because its boiling point is 40 degrees C and will boil off before the trimyristin which has a boiling point of 56-57 degrees C. Finally acetone was added to wash the crystals and the solution was vacuum filtered. This process was repeated and the trimyristin was collected. Results: Experimental yield of trimyristin= .64g Experimental melting point of trimyristin= 59 degrees C Percentage yield = experimental-truex100 True Dicussion: The extraction of trimystrin left white crystals resembling a powder. Its melting point was 56 degrees C which was exactly the recorded value. However, given that
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