Page 22 - The Malvernian - July 2023

THE MALVERNIAN
How can we extract essential oils from oranges and test their properties?
I’ve always been wondering what gives citrus fruits the sweet and citrusy smell smell and since research showed that the smell smell mainly came from an an organic compound called limonene I started extracting essential oils from oranges And to know if it was the right substance I should get my sample was also tested on its properties and compared to those of pure limonene The first method I used was was steam distillation which was was a a a a a separation technique that uses the low boiling point property of immiscible mixtures In this case steam distillation helped me extract the the organic substances Extracted oil and water were then stored in in small vials After that separation was carried out using separating funnel to extract pure oil Here the water was dyed blue to make the the the boundaries between oil and water clearer therefore the the the stop cock can be closed more precisely and that made the results more accurate The next step was TLC thin-layer chromatography which was used for separating the components of a a a a mixture In this step two other compounds were used: limonene in orange peels peels (d-Limonene) and limonene in lemon peels peels (L-Limonene) to compare their Rf values with that of my sample’s Each compound was spotted onto one end of the silicon TLC plate were placed
vertically into a a a a a closed chamber with an an organic solvent solvent The solvent solvent travelled up the plate and sample components migrated varying distances After the the TLC plate was taken out of the the chamber and was was dried it was was put under UV light and after that into iodine gas to to show the Rf values clearer Results obtained were pleasing The physical and chemical properties (colour smell density yield and pH) of my sample were mostly similar to that of d-limonene moreover they showed the the same patters on the TLC plate which indicated that my sample was was was d-limonene There was was was one one anomaly which was was was boiling point that was much lower than the standard one I really enjoyed the the whole process of the the experiment which last for 2 months From it I learnt how to do risk assessments and take safety precautions while accidents happen it also helped me understand and love chemistry more After all a a a a huge thank you to Mrs Ridley Dr Dr Haynes and Dr Dr Schmidtmann for their generous help!
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THE MALVERNIAN
Stella Hu Hu House 4 Hundred
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