Little_Ghost_again
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Some questions on cloves extraction and white crystals
Hi
I am going to do a Soxhlet extraction with whole cloves and IPA, and a steam extraction on whole cloves. I want to compare the differences etc of the
two methods.
My question isnt actually in the extraction, this I can UTFSE. My question is about a strange observation I made.
I wanted to see if IPA would leach the colour as well as the oil etc, I also wanted to get a rough idea if I was going to have to crush the cloves or
if I could get decent results without (I have an allergy to cloves so prefer not to mess with the powder).
I placed 12 whole cloves in a small ramekin and covered to 3cm over the top of the cloves with IPA.
Now I now clove oil is volatile and so is IPA, but normally I can leave a beaker of IPA out most the day and the evaporation loss isnt much (room
normally held between 12-15C).
I left the ramekin uncovered and went back 3 hours later. What I am left with is very very soft clove stalks, a slight brown/red tinge stain and some
small white crystals!
Everything is absolutely bone dry, no oil of liquid at all.
Does anyone have a clue what the white crystals might be? I have evaporated oil of cloves before but all I got was a small amount of brown powder
(more of a stain than powder).
I will try and get a picture if it helps. I am due to do the actual extractions in the next couple of days, I need to sort a different condenser to
the one I was going to use, as I found out the water coil inside was plastic!
I have others but this one fitted the Soxhlet I wanted to use.
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Metacelsus
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When I extracted cloves (this was with supercritical CO2 in a chemistry class I took), I ground them up first. I'm not sure if an extraction would
work with whole cloves. I doubt the solvent would diffuse far enough into the cloves to dissolve all the soluble compounds.
For the same class, I also did a steam distillation of (also ground) cloves. The conclusion was that steam distillation gave lower yields but higher
purity (of eugenol+acetyleugenol, by NMR) than the CO2 extraction, because the extraction also gets non-volatile, high molecular weight compounds. I
might be able to find the exact numbers somewhere.
I have no idea about the crystals. Maybe they are an air oxidation product of the oil; eugenol and acetyleugenol are liquids.
[Edited on 23-9-2014 by Cheddite Cheese]
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Little_Ghost_again
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Quote: Originally posted by Cheddite Cheese  | When I extracted cloves (this was with supercritical CO2 in a chemistry class I took), I ground them up first. I'm not sure if an extraction would
work with whole cloves. I doubt the solvent would diffuse far enough into the cloves to dissolve all the soluble compounds.
For the same class, I also did a steam distillation of (also ground) cloves. The conclusion was that steam distillation gave lower yields but higher
purity (of eugenol+acetyleugenol, by NMR) than the CO2 extraction, because the extraction also gets non-volatile, high molecular weight compounds. I
might be able to find the exact numbers somewhere.
I have no idea about the crystals. Maybe they are an air oxidation product of the oil; eugenol and acetyleugenol are liquids.
[Edited on 23-9-2014 by Cheddite Cheese] |
I didnt heat anything or doing anything, so I was wondering if IPA gave crystals if it was totally evaporated off? I am gong to take a look at them
under the scope and see what kind of shape etc. There is no smell remotely like cloves or even IPA, seeing as a few on here have done this extraction
etc I just thought someone might have come across crystal either from IPA or cloves.
The better way to have asked is does IPA give crystals if evaporated right down to nothing.
Thanks for the info. I would love to do a super critical on tomato plants! I read something last week about someone using butane to extract from a
green illegal drug! I can see how to do it with CO2 and tomatoes but without all the kit I cant see anyway to recover the CO2.
I would need a ball mill or something to grind them, I dont want to inhale any of the dust! I react to oil of cloves, not in a serious way I just come
out n a rash all over that itches for days!
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hyfalcon
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Residual peroxides in the IPA maybe?
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Little_Ghost_again
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Maybe.........And I assume this is bad, I have seen warning about this on here but nothing that explains what peroxides are,how they are formed and in
what way they are dangerous. So one the one hand maybe I should be running around in circles screaming for help, but on the other I would prefer to
know why i am running around screaming for help  .
So can someone put me out of my misery and explain these dreaded peroxides, or suggest a place I can visit for information
many thanks
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