Clove Oils - Essential Oils

"Essential oils" are the volatile components associated with the aromas of many plants.1 In this experiment, the essential oil eugenol (the main component of oil of cloves), acetyl eugenol and crude oil were isolated from ground cloves using the technique of steam distillation, which is often used to isolate liquid natural products from plants.

Most of the drugs now prescribed by physicians were either derived from natural sources or developed by modifying the molecular structures of natural substances. For example, the heart stimulant digitalis is extracted from the foxglove plant, and the molecular structure of aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is based on natural salicylates such as salicin from willow bark, which

has been used for centuries by Native Americans to treat fevers.

The principle of steam distillation is based on the fact that two immiscible liquids will boil at a lower temperature than the boiling points of either pure component, because the total vapor pressure of the heterogeneous mixture is simply the sum of the vapor pressures of the individual components (i. e. PT = PoA + PoB, where Po is the vapor pressure of the pure liquids). This leads to a higher vapor pressure for the mixture than would be predicted for a solution using Raoult's Law (that is PT = PoANA + PoBNB, where N is the mole fraction of the component in the mixture). The higher total vapor pressure leads to a lower boiling point for the mixture than for either single component.2 During the isolation of a liquid natural product by steam distillation, water is one of the components, and the liquid natural product being isolated (which is immiscible with water) is the other component. The product can be steam distilled from the natural source at a relatively low temperature (always less than 100 oC), thus avoiding decomposition of the product.2

Steam distillation can be carried out in two ways: the direct method and the live steam method.3 In the direct method, steam is generated by boiling a mixture of the source of the compound of interest and water. The live steam method is carried out by passing steam from an external source into the distillation flask. The direct method of steam distillation will be used in this experiment and is carried out on a semi-micro scale using the apparatus shown in Figure 1 below:

Ground cloves and water will be charged into the distillation flask shown in the figure. The mixture will then be heated to boiling on a hot plate with an aluminum heating block and the distillate (a eugenol/water mixture) will be collected. The eugenol will then be separated from the water by extraction with methylene chloride. The methylene chloride solution will then be dried, decanted and evaporated to afford the liquid eugenol. The percent recovery from cloves will be determined, and is expected to be about 10%,