Steam Distillation Of Eugenol

Essential oils are volatile components associated with the aromas of seeds, bark, or roots of plants. In this experiment, the essential oil eugenol was isolated from ground cloves using steam distillation techniques. Eugenol had a high boiling point, but it was isolated at a lower temperature by performing a co-distillation with water, a process known as steam distillation. This technique allowed the desired material to be distilled at a lower temperature than 100℃. The point of the steam distillation was to use an azeotrope to isolate the organic compound from a solid. The azeotrope was the liquid mixture with a constant boiling point. After obtaining pure eugenol, the percent recovery was calculated and an IR spectroscopy was performed.
A mixture of 15 g of Cloves and 150 ml of water was added to the 500 ml round bottom flask containing a magnetic stir bar. This mixture was heated while water was added through the funnel being careful to keep the volume in 500 ml distillation flask. The glassware was covered with foil to ensure proper heating. When the mixture started to boil the temperature was recorded. After the mixture was heated, the distillate product was obtained and the spent cloves and water were disposed.
Extraction of Eugenol A mixture of 25 ml distillate and 10 ml CH2Cl2 was placed into a separatory funnel. This mixture was extracted and 15 ml of extract was collected. In the same separatory funnel 10 ml of CH2Cl2 was added, extracted and collected. Another third extraction with 10 ml of CH2Cl2 was performed and collected. These 3 extracts were combined to give the total crude product.
Drying & Purification of
By performing an extraction and rotary evaporation, the eugenol product was isolated from this clove oil. The steam distillation of 15 grams of cloves produced 9.3 grams of Eugenol, which yielded a 62 % recovery. The percent recovery is enough to conclude that there was a high percentage of eugenol. This was further confirmed by looking at the IR spectroscopy of the experimental product and the IR spectroscopy of the expected product. The IR spectroscopy of the experimental eugenol product closely corresponded with that of the expected IR spectroscopy. The peaks in both of the IR spectrums were similar, even though in the expected IR the peaks were much more prominent than in the experimental IR spectrum. Therefore, it could be concluded that the oil that was isolated from the cloves was