Sciencemadness Discussion Board
Not logged in [Login ]
Go To Bottom

Printable Version  
Author: Subject: Extraction of Mint Oil
subsecret
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 424
Registered: 8-6-2013
Location: NW SC, USA
Member Is Offline

Mood: Human Sadness - Julian Casablancas & the Voidz

[*] posted on 22-6-2013 at 20:41
Extraction of Mint Oil


Recently I decided to grab some mint from my garden and extract the oil from the leaves through distillation. Here was my procedure:

1) Place lightly shredded mint leaves into a 500ml, 2 neck RBF.
2) Add enough water to nearly cover the mint leaves.
3) Add a thermometer to the center neck of the flask, attach the rest of the distillation apparatus to the other neck. [Just a bent adapter, a 400mm Liebig condenser, vacuum adapter, another RBF]
4) Heat the mixture with a Bunsen burner until approximately 50ml of distillate were collected.

I then proceeded to place this distillate into a test tube to salt the oil out of the water. I used magnesium sulfate to salt it out. At the time, I had no sodium chloride on hand, which is much more soluble in water than magnesium sulfate.

I developed several questions during this experiment:
How much of a difference does the solubility of the salt make?
Are there any other processes that are used to efficiently extract oil from mint leaves?

Any help is greatly appreciated.
View user's profile View All Posts By User
bfesser
Resident Wikipedian
*****




Posts: 2114
Registered: 29-1-2008
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 22-6-2013 at 21:00


<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraction_(chemistry)" target="_blank">Solvent extraction</a> <img src="../scipics/_wiki.png" /> (nowadays <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercritical_carbon_dioxide" target="_blank">supercritical CO<sub>2</sub></a> <img src="../scipics/_wiki.png" />;) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expeller_pressing" target="_blank">pressing</a> <img src="../scipics/_wiki.png" /> come to mind.

[Edited on 7/9/13 by bfesser]




View user's profile View All Posts By User
Fantasma4500
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1681
Registered: 12-12-2012
Location: Dysrope (aka europe)
Member Is Offline

Mood: dangerously practical

[*] posted on 23-6-2013 at 07:31


ive tried extracting oil from.... ''rape''

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0gHp4eFLCN8/TdirWkJGSOI/AAAAAAAAH3...

i used water and i havent gotten any results, never thought of how polarity and all of these words actually plays together with it, very interesting idea to extract your own oil
actually wondered about this thing many times

came by this, this explains it decently

http://www.ehow.com/info_8630285_dissolves-oil.html

so i suppose you could try with different solvents, and then add the solvent with hopefully oil dissolved in it to water where it would loose non polarity and thereby the oil wouldnt be soluble in it anymore..

same procedure is done with recrystallalization of ETN

ETN is dissolved in ethanol
ethanol is added to water, where concentration of ethanol goes very low and the ETN precipitates out

just that oil is usually lighter than water so you should be able to extract it with a syringe or pipette




~25 drops = 1mL @dH2O viscocity - STP
Truth is ever growing - but without context theres barely any such.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solubility_table
http://www.trimen.pl/witek/calculators/stezenia.html
View user's profile View All Posts By User
bfesser
Resident Wikipedian
*****




Posts: 2114
Registered: 29-1-2008
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 23-6-2013 at 07:38


<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythritol_tetranitrate" target="_blank">Erythritol tetranitrate (ETN)</a> <img src="../scipics/_wiki.png" />

[Edited on 7/9/13 by bfesser]




View user's profile View All Posts By User
subsecret
Hazard to Others
***




Posts: 424
Registered: 8-6-2013
Location: NW SC, USA
Member Is Offline

Mood: Human Sadness - Julian Casablancas & the Voidz

[*] posted on 23-6-2013 at 09:33


Sorry, I don't plan on messing with homemade explosives. It's just too dangerous. That recrystallization process is good, but after doing some further research, I might just use DCM for the extraction. Thanks for the help.

[Edited on 23-6-2013 by Awesomeness]

<!-- bfesser_edit_tag -->[<a href="u2u.php?action=send&username=bfesser">bfesser</a>: removed unnecessary quoting]

[Edited on 7/8/13 by bfesser]
View user's profile View All Posts By User
Magpie
lab constructor
*****




Posts: 5939
Registered: 1-11-2003
Location: USA
Member Is Offline

Mood: Chemistry: the subtle science.

[*] posted on 23-6-2013 at 09:50


My understanding is that commercially mint is recovered by steam distillation using the harvest truck itself as the RBF. I don't think any "salting out" is used. Here's a video of a good ol' boy harvesting mint oil.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOM3EVp_fj0

[Edited on 23-6-2013 by Magpie]




The single most important condition for a successful synthesis is good mixing - Nicodem
View user's profile View All Posts By User
bfesser
Resident Wikipedian
*****




Posts: 2114
Registered: 29-1-2008
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

[*] posted on 23-6-2013 at 10:38


<strong>Awesomeness</strong>, I was just defining <strong>Antiswat</strong>'s ambiguous acronym. I have no idea why he was talking about ETN.



View user's profile View All Posts By User
12AX7
Post Harlot
*****




Posts: 4803
Registered: 8-3-2005
Location: oscillating
Member Is Offline

Mood: informative

[*] posted on 23-6-2013 at 17:13


Quote: Originally posted by Antiswat  
ive tried extracting oil from.... ''rape''

http://seventransistorlabs.com/Images/rapeseed.jpg

/We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread..




Seven Transistor Labs LLC http://seventransistorlabs.com/
Electronic Design, from Concept to Layout.
Need engineering assistance? Drop me a message!
View user's profile Visit user's homepage View All Posts By User This user has MSN Messenger

  Go To Top