SHADYCHASE54 - 8-2-2011 at 03:05
Hello all,
so as I stated, 'I bought some bitter almond oil,' bottle in hand dreaming about the day I would get extracting; I was sure feeling like I was quite a
clever little beaver. OOPS! upon another inspection of the site I bought it from I realized the oil was listed under fragrent oils NOT ESSENTIAL. So
now I have a liter of synthetic which as I understand can contain up to 40% of the big B. (benzaldehyde) however, regarding the other ingredients
nothing is listed as it is considered an in house formula and thus protected under patent or somthing alike. The only thing I know for sure is that it
is apparently pthalate free.
Does any body have any experience with extracting benzaldehyde from the synthetic shit?
Would I be able to run an inital extraction forming the bisulfite adduct filtering it off converting it back to the aldehyde then fractioning? or
would I have to fraction first? if so what other ingredients might I encounter?
Any thoughts, advice or information would be very much appreciated. thanks in advance.
SHADYCHASE54 - 8-2-2011 at 11:07
Any thoughts, advice or information please
ChemichaelRXN - 8-2-2011 at 17:59
Although I have not tried separation of benzaldehyde from a mixture before, but have handled benzaldehyde in college, I suggest fractional
distillation using inert gas (N2, He...). Inert gas is needed so benzaldehyde doesn't oxidize to benzoic acid. I wouldn't bother using any bisulphite.
Collect the fraction at the b.p. of benzaldehyde and possibly do another distillation if you want it extra pure.
Also store the benzaldehyde under inert gas. I remember in college half of the benzaldehyde bottles they had were full of crystals of benzoic acid. It
might take a while to get that bad, but it would be better to fully inhibit benzoic acid formation depending on what your are using the benzaldehyde
for.