Question

  Explain the extraction and isolation processes of trimyristin from nutmeg spice.

Answer 1

EXTRACTION OF TRYMYSTIN FROM NUTMEG SPICE

Nutmeg, a solid, is a spice and contains several components including cellulose, fats and essential oils. One of those fats found in nutmeg is trimyristin, which can be isolated from nutmeg through extraction with dichloromethane.

procedure ( i considered nutmeg mass 2g )

Add 2 g of nutmeg to a 25-mL or 50-mL roundbottomed flask, followed by 10 mL of dichloromethane. Add a boiling chip and fit the round-bottom flask with a reflux condenser. Gently heat the mixture for 30 minutes. After which, cool the resulting mixture to room temperature and vacuum filter the resulting solution through a pad of celite using a Büchner funnel.

Transfer your filtrate to a pre-weighed Erlenmeyer flask or vial. Add a boiling stick and evaporate off the dichloromethane, which should result in an oily material, which you should weigh. Then, recrystallize the residue using ethanol. For a rule of thumb with the experiment, you should use around 10 mL of 95% ethanol per gram of residue. Filter your product using vacuum filtration, dry the sample, and record its weight