Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Gardening to Grow Plants Useful for Home Chemistry?

Xenon1898 - 2-2-2013 at 16:37

Any ideas on what plants could be grown to provide raw materials that could either be extracted directly or used for home chemistry syntheses? Whatever comes to mind....

Please exclude all consideration of substances illegal in the United States, I don't want to find out if I can read SM from inside a prison cell!

kristofvagyok - 2-2-2013 at 16:50

Read more and ask less.

There is a really nice journal from Elsevier called Phytochemistry, it is about plant made chemistry, so what, how, when and why should be grown in your garden, get a few article from that. And there is a whole section here called biochemistry what is also about organism made chemistry, check out that also.

You also forgot to mention what kind of chemistry are you doing, so if we would write ideas than probably most of them would be completely useless for your purposes unless we know that what do you need.

I would personally recommend a peach or a cherry tree, because it produces really tasty and useful things what could be used easily in the lab or in the kitchen and only require a water wash before use.

Lambda-Eyde - 2-2-2013 at 16:59

You could always grow tobacco plants and extract the nicotine (provided it's legal in your country). If you want to extract nicotine, this would be significantly cheaper than buying smoking tobacco.

Simbani - 2-2-2013 at 17:12

I think you can extract Iodine out of algae-ash. There is an endless amount of substances you can extract from plants, ranging from psychoactive stuff over poisons and aromas/flavours to substances with odd properties like the glue from carnivorous plants or from seashells. Biological chemistry is nearly infinite.

Lambda-Eyde - 2-2-2013 at 17:18

Quote: Originally posted by Simbani  
I think you can extract Iodine out of algae-ash.

Forum member Peach did that, search the forum.
Quote: Originally posted by Simbani  
There is an endless amount of substances you can extract from plants, ranging from psychoactive stuff over poisons and aromas/flavours to substances with odd properties like the glue from carnivorous plants or from seashells. Biological chemistry is nearly infinite.

Yes, but unfortunately not all of it is doable in an amateur setting...

Simbani - 2-2-2013 at 17:49

Yes, but unfortunately not all of it is doable in an amateur setting...[/rquote]

I didn't say that :) He asked what he could extract and I gave him a general answer. I think this kind of chemistry is a lot harder to do than the "normal" stuff most of us do, especially when it comes to seperation and purification.

Another thing are be various dyes, which are relatively feasible to extract in sufficient purity for the home chemist. Look up a few for youself.

Thanks

Xenon1898 - 4-2-2013 at 18:30

I realize now my question was too broad to be of much use. I was just checking in case someone actually does grow some sort of plant that they might use something from in the lab, either routinely like pH indicators or for a raw product for making another material, etc.

For example the first United States Patent was for making potash from wood ashes. Probably too messy for a lab setting though, the work to separate and purify the potassium carbonate would probably not provide a pure enough product (yes, I have done this - not worth it!)

I already grow herbs and other plants to make herbal extracts, but I haven't isolated and identified any compounds yet. Not sure how I would get a relieable identification in a home lab anyway.

Thanks for the ideas.

Random - 5-2-2013 at 12:30

Quote: Originally posted by Xenon1898  
I realize now my question was too broad to be of much use. I was just checking in case someone actually does grow some sort of plant that they might use something from in the lab, either routinely like pH indicators or for a raw product for making another material, etc.

For example the first United States Patent was for making potash from wood ashes. Probably too messy for a lab setting though, the work to separate and purify the potassium carbonate would probably not provide a pure enough product (yes, I have done this - not worth it!)

I already grow herbs and other plants to make herbal extracts, but I haven't isolated and identified any compounds yet. Not sure how I would get a relieable identification in a home lab anyway.

Thanks for the ideas.


One member proved that banana skin ashes contain a lot more potassium than wood ashes in general.

Boffis - 5-2-2013 at 14:56

Yellow flavinoid pigments are interesting things, they form fluorescent complexes and lakes with beryllium aluminium tin etc and occur in many plants. The most interesting and most widely used in analytical chemistry is Morin from Fustic and Osago Orange woods which are a bit inconventient to grow in our small garden and the UK climate! but Dyers Broom grows wild and abundantly around where I live and it contains a very similar flavinoid called Luteolin which also occurs in the herbaceous plant Weld. I am currently investigating the extraction of these compounds from the two latter plants and Dyers Chamomile. All of which grow easily and quickly in the UK, most of Europe and I suspect NA too.

You could also try indigo, the seeds are readily available on the internet. Other flavinoids are available from such mundane things as the papery outer layer of onion skins.

chemrox - 5-2-2013 at 17:20

Essential oils are precursors for lots of things. So are terpenes and terpenoids. Think more in terms of flowering plants. Faster to grow. Its a candy store. What are you interested in? Focus and go from there. In addition to "Phytochemistry'" don't neglect Journal of Natural Products (ACS).

Erbium_Iodine_Carbon - 6-2-2013 at 19:12

You could grow some red cabbage to make a pH indicator, but you could also just buy some at the grocery store.

Oxalic acid can be extracted from rhubarb leaves (And you can make pie with the red stems)

That's the best of what I can think of right now; they aren't exactly useful money wise but the chemistry could be interesting.

food for thought

Xenon1898 - 6-2-2013 at 19:58

I like all these suggestions. I have already been growing rhubarb leaves for the oxalic acid although I haven't extracted it yet (made some good rhubarb crunch though). I started thyme, catnip, rosemary, comfrey, black elder, hawthorn, violets, dill, wormwood, mugwort, yarrow, arnica, etc. last year, targeting essential oil extraction in the future when they get going. I am planning to re-landscape and have an opportunity to put in thousands of square feet of whatever I want, so I thought I would get some ideas. Making different colored lakes is a great idea, hadn't thought of that.

Mercedesbenzene - 6-2-2013 at 21:02

I find I commonly use ethanol in the lab which is easier made by fermentation of, well, many different kinds of plants!
Corn
Potatoes
Grapes
Ect...