Extraction of limonene, eugenol, menthone, carvone from natural products.
Separation of components of clove oil.
Involving the natural products extracted (above) but also citral, aspirin and oil of wintergreen to give students an introduction to important functional groups and key organic chemistry.
i.e. alkenes; aldehydes and ketones, carboxylic acids and phenols.
Isomerism:
Some of the compounds are chiral (e.g. limonene and carvone) and some exhibit
geometrical isomerism (e.g. citral).
Spectroscopy:
 |
| NMR Spectroscopy |
The students run their own IR spectra with guidance from our demonstrators.
The spectroscopy illustrated undelines how useful the techniques are in determining structure and purity in compounds.
e.g.
- What components are present in a sample of distilled orange oil?
- How can you use NMR to distinguish an aldehyde from a ketone?
- How does Mass Spectrometry allow us to characterise some of the structural features in aspirin?
http://www.wjec.co.uk/uploads/publications/6148.pdf
