Question

Cloves contain two principal essential oils, caryophyllene and eugenol. A student carrying out a steam distillation using cloves obtained a mixture of these two oils in the distillate. Explain how the student could separate and isolate the two essential oils using liquid-liquid extraction (hint: phenols are moderately acidic and can be deprotonated by NaOH).
Take the hint. Eugenol is a phenol and the other one is a hydrocarbon; add NaOH to make the Na salt and it will be soluble in water whereas the caryophyllene will more than likley be soluble in ether or some other non-polar solvent. Extract with the two liquids. The Na salt of the eugenol will stay in the water, the other compound will go with the non-polar solvent.

Related Questions

I isolated eugenol from cloves in the lab using extraction and steam distillation but we did not do... Why is steam distillation rather than a simple distillation used to isolate eugenol? My answer is... In the laboratory process of isolating Eugenol from cloves via a steam distillation, extraction, dry... What volume of eugenol will be present in 30 mL of distillate? The essential oil found in cloves, e...