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Author: Subject: Anyone else interestead in extracting chemicals from plant material?
NEMO-Chemistry
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[*] posted on 9-6-2016 at 23:17


Rosemary and Thyme etc contain Thymol and carocrol, these are used in beekeeping for killing off Varroa. I cant remember what the herbal says about them now.
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[*] posted on 10-6-2016 at 16:08


Count me in. I grow medicinal and aromatic plants for the very purpose of extracting compounds from them. Plants are great chemical manufacturers! They can perform complex enzyme-mediated multistep biosyntheses. Quite remarkable, especially when you take into account things like stereochemistry.
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[*] posted on 11-6-2016 at 03:13


Thought this maybe of interest.

It compares the efficacy of hot and cold extractions from different common spices, no great but might be worth a read to some. At the moment i am looking around at various papers to see what i can find that relates to what i already have access too :D.

I will add more as i find them.

I have also found alot on microwave extractions, but i will post a question regarding that in the techno chem section

Attachment: properies of different spice extractions.pdf (808kB)
This file has been downloaded 548 times

[Edited on 11-6-2016 by NEMO-Chemistry]
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[*] posted on 13-6-2016 at 13:04


Three days in the desiccator with sodium hydroxide pellets as desiccator, the mint has a grey mold on and the chili peppers (birds eye type) are getting black spots on. Desiccator not in contact with material, The hydroxide has nearly all gone to liquid. WHAT am i doing wrong?

I think i need a proper glass desiccator? maybe the plastic box i use is too big or leaks, real PITA as the mint isnt a huge patch and takes a week or two to produce enough to crop again.

Suggestions?



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ficolas
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[*] posted on 13-6-2016 at 13:54


I wouldnt use a dessicator, using an oven or drying on the sun seems like a better idea, since peppers (and a bit less mint) have way too much water in them, and you dont need them completely out of water, you just need them kinda dry.
I'd put them in the oven, at low temps (200C or even less, dont know if they decompose, but they evaporate at arround that tempeeature) since they are edibles. However now that you have had them near sodium hydroxide, I wouldnt put them in the oven, but that may be just because I have a too extric separation between my chemicals and stuff that im going to eat.

[Edited on 13-6-2016 by ficolas]
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[*] posted on 13-6-2016 at 14:17


Quote: Originally posted by ficolas  
I wouldnt use a dessicator, using an oven or drying on the sun seems like a better idea, since peppers (and a bit less mint) have way too much water in them, and you dont need them completely out of water, you just need them kinda dry.
I'd put them in the oven, at low temps (200C or even less, dont know if they decompose, but they evaporate at arround that tempeeature) since they are edibles. However now that you have had them near sodium hydroxide, I wouldnt put them in the oven, but that may be just because I have a too extric separation between my chemicals and stuff that im going to eat.

[Edited on 13-6-2016 by ficolas]


I slung them out anyway. Chillis are easy to get from the supermarket, although it seems when i go there to get scotch bonnet ones they only have birds eye, when i go for birds eye ones they only have scotch bonnet!

Mint seems to grow quickly but it dosnt seems anywhere near as invasive as i have read!! Cant do much chemistry in the week days, so will try again and hopefully be able to try and extract the mint at the weekend.

I have an old microwave now so might try and dry them with that :D, i am hoping to convert it at the weekend for microwave extractions, loads of papers on microwave extractions. Most seem to suggest yields are higher when done with microwave, i cant argue with them but it dosnt seem logical to me.

Also got hold of some fresh ginger so that is another. At the moment i am simply chopping up plant matter and leaving to soak for a few days in various solvents. I will start the distillation/extractions at the weekend.

The reason i wanted it dry was so i could compare yields between dry and fresh, some papers suggest better results with dry material, also i would like to see if chlorophyll is less of a problem when material is dry.



[Edited on 13-6-2016 by NEMO-Chemistry]
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[*] posted on 15-6-2016 at 03:56


For a good practical book on extracting natural materials from plants see "Natural Products, A Laboratory Guide, Raphael Ikan, 2nd edition" on bittorrent.
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[*] posted on 15-6-2016 at 05:11


Quote: Originally posted by Paddywhacker  
For a good practical book on extracting natural materials from plants see "Natural Products, A Laboratory Guide, Raphael Ikan, 2nd edition" on bittorrent.


Thanks. I am working on the microwave, I was unlucky in as much as our old one (the one I got) has a fan in. I need to figure out how to get a hole in the top or maybe the side and still get the glass to fit. I am going to disconnect the fan.

Mainly weekend is my time for this stuff, but we break up for 6 weeks in 2 weeks time so i have a block of time then.

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[*] posted on 15-6-2016 at 12:06


Extractions were what drew me in to chemistry almost a decade ago. I wanted to catalogue all the most abundant chemicals in any given plant. When I had a few rotavaps, I'd soxhlet wiith pet ether, ethyl acetate, water, and ethanol. When some rota vaps broke, I began usex Chemicals that would easily evaporate (acetone, methanol, hexane and skipped water). On the polar and water fractions I would even run an A-B. I kept 1-2my samples, which I still have today.

I had two problems with TLC, a)older plates sometimes crumbled and b) even with a 25cm plate, it looked like a child smeared a crayon up the plate.

So then I thought, I'd use a column then run a plate on each alloquat. Then man the spot on the column and run it through my Friend's labs IR spec.
Ultimate my dissertation in a completely unrelated subject needed to be done.

I love the idea of cataloguing all the chemicals in a plant but it's expensive, time consuming, and unless you have a GC/MS , doing it as a hobbit would take a life time.

Mad props if you can do it but from my experience, there are better hobbies, one with tangible outcomes
I don't want to discourage q but just tell you my story.
Best of luck.

[Edited on 15-6-2016 by Cabalaba]
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[*] posted on 15-6-2016 at 12:50


I am more after targeting ones that make crystals or things of interest, not so much 'every ' chem in the plant. But having said if i can get a number of compounds in small amounts from plant stuff then i am happy enough.

Plants are free (pretty much) is kind of fun and when it comes to compounds with crystals its a bit different, also at the moment i am sticking to the safe side of things until i have better equipment and skills.
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