Name: Natalie Martin

Student Number: 211505456

Date of Practical: 18-25/08/2014

CHEM320: Pre-Practical Report

Experiment 1: Isolation of Eugenol and Acetyleugenol from cloves
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Pre-lab Questions and Answers
1. There are many types of distillation including simple distillation, fractional distillation,
distillation under reduced pressure, short path distillation and steam distillation.
(a) Distillation is a method for purifying volatile liquids. Explain how the impurities are
separated from the desired product.
Distillation is a process in which a liquid or vapour mixture of two or more substances is
separated into its component fractions of desired purity [1]. At a certain temperature, the one
product evaporates and condenses into another beaker the other product remains in the round
bottomed flask as a higher temperature is required. The desired product may have the higher
or lower boiling point. If the desired product has a lower boiling point, it will be collected in
another flask and the impurities will remain behind [1]. Hence distillation is used to purify a
compound by separating it from a less-volatile liquid due to the difference in boiling points
[2].
(b) Describe each of the above-mentioned forms of distillation.
Simple distillation:
Fractional distillation:
Distillation under reduced pressure:
Short path distillation:
Steam distillation:
(c) For each type of distillation, state the boiling point difference required between the
various components to achieve separation.
Simple distillation:
Fractional distillation:
Distillation under reduced pressure:
Short path distillation:
Steam distillation:

(d) What are the factors that help one decide which the most suitable type of distillation to
perform is? The temperature of the distillation is about 100C, the boiling point of water.
Explain why eugenol is removed from the flask during the steam distillation.

2. The material recovered in the steam distillation contains mostly eugenol but it also has
other components such as caryophyllene. Look up the properties of phenols such as eugenol
and suggest a chemical method for separating eugenol and caryophyllene.
3. How can information from analytical gas chromatography be used to purify the different
components of clove oil? How would this procedure compare to the use of column
chromatography?

References:
[1] Distillation Principles, (http://1rv07ch.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/distillationprinciples.pdf) (Accessed: 07/09/2014)
[2] Organic Chemistry - Distillation, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry,
University of Colorado at Boulder,
(http://orgchem.colorado.edu/Technique/Procedures/Distillation/Distillation.html) (Accessed:
07/09/2014)
[3]