Eugenol Lab Report

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After successfully isolating the eugenol and acetyleugenol, all that was left was to weigh each product. Once the lab was completed and the masses of the products were weighed, a 1.8% recovery of acetyleugenol as well as a 4.59% recovery of eugenol were obtained. These values may seem low, but in reality they may not be. This is because the amount of eugenol and acetyleugenol initially contained in the 25 grams of cloves is unknown. However, it is possible there were sources of error that occurred during the lab. A mechanical source of error would be spilling small amounts of solution while transferring it to different containers (beakers/flasks). Other sources of error could include incomplete reaction. This may be due to a lack of mixing …show more content…

This difference is that eugenol has a alcohol group (OH) coming off its benzene ring while acetyleugenol has an ester group coming off its ring instead. This important stuctural difference is what allowed the separation between eugenol and acetyleugenol. This can be seen during extraction when the sodium hydroxide was added to the methylene chloride layer containg the eugenol and acetyleugenol. The OH group on the eugenol is able to react with the sodium hydroxide as seen in the mechanism diagram above. This reaction leads to eugenol going into the sodium hydroxide layer while the acetyleugenol is left in the methylene chloride layer. The eugenol’s OH group reacts with the negativle charged OH from the NaOH. The reaction leads to the eugenol’s OH group becoming a negativly charged oxygen. This negativley charged oxygen then reacts with the positivly charged Na from the NaOH and forms an eugenol salt. Eugenol salts dissolve in water, thus allowing the eugenol to be take from the sodium hydroxide layer to the water. The acetyleugenol has an ester group instead of an OH group, so it cannot under go this same extraction …show more content…

Both molecules in this lab have their own unique mass spec. This means that each molecule can be cut in a certain way which allows them to be differentiated from one another. The molecules focused on in this lab are eugenol and acetyleugenol. A clear distinction between their two mass spectra is that the acetyleugenol has an ion peak representng its mass at 206. The eugenol has an ion peak at 178 representing its mass. This is logical because the difference in mass between the two molecules is by the ester group acetyleugenol has. Eugenol has an OH group instead of an ester group. This causes the mass of the eugenol to be lower than the mass of acetyleugenol. There is a unique fragmentation at 17 that is only seen in mass spec for the eugenol. This fragmentation is caused by the eugenol being cut at the point where the OH group is coming of the aromatic ring. This fragmentation is impossible for acetyleugenol achieve because it has an ester group instead of an OH

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