By: Katy Salter, Monique Gray, and Ronnie Groller

Peanut oil is generally used for cooking purposes. For example, it is used in the fast food industry, it can be used to make soap and soap products, and it can be used to synthesize biodiesel, like we did in organic II lab. Almond oil is another oil that has important applications. Almond oil is used for cooking as well, and it can be used as a skin treatment. Also, it is associated with reduced cardiovascular risks. One of it derivatives, Amygdalin, can be used as a cancer treatment, but research is still being done on its effectivity.

Cinnamaldehyde is an essential oil that gives cinnamon its smell and flavor, like most essential oils from spices. Extracted essential oils from spices, such as cinnamon, can be used in artificial flavoring, and in candles and cosmetics. Also, cinnamaldehyde can be used as an antimicrobial and fungicide that can be sprayed on fruits and vegetables. Thus, extraction of these essential oils is important, and methods for extracting these oils serve important purposes. Therefore, we wanted to develop a method for extracting essential oils using the SFE.

As part of Instrumental Analytical Chemistry course we are required to do a real world project, thus, for this real world experiment we, as a group, have decided to experiment with extracting essential oils from spices and nuts. Thus, we want to see if extraction of essential oils can be done using SFE and characterization can be done using the IR. PURPOSE The purpose of this experiment was to see if extraction of essential oils can be done using the SFE and to see if characterization can be done using IR Spec. Also, we wanted to find relative setting that can be used to extract these oils. The majority of the experimental results were analyzed with more of a qualitative perspective than quantitative.

Samples - Cinnamon Sticks - Almonds - Raw Peanuts - Hexane ( As Solvent) Standards - Almond Oil - Peanut Oil - Cinnamaldehyde (Structure) Instruments Used - SFE - IR

Supercritical Fluid Extraction Turned on CO 2, turned on the SFE. SFE was cleaned and then samples were ran. IR Setup the instrument, ran a background, and ran samples.

Sample Preparation & Analysis: Crushed a sufficient amount of each sample using a mortal and pestle. Weigh about 4g of each sample (Spices or Nuts). Weigh an empty 25mL Erlenmeyer flask (this will be used to collect the sample), While collecting sample, place parafilm over opening of flask to prevent loss of product. Re-weighed the 25mL Erlenmeyer flask with sample to get an estimate of how much was extracted. Ran an IR of sample and compared to standard samples that were already run or looked for characteristic peaks related essential oil (cinnamon).

SFE Peanuts Masses 1. Peanuts : g 2. 25mL Flask: g 3. Final : g – g = g oil /4.2025g = x 100= (6.579%) Super Critical Fluid Extraction Settings Oven Temperature: 110 ⁰C Valve Temperature: 120⁰C Pressure: 253 barr

SFE Almonds Masses 1. Almonds: g 2. 25mL Flask: g 3. Final: g g – g = g g – g = 0.018g x 100 (1.80%) Super Critical Fluid Extraction Settings Oven Temperature: 130 ⁰C Valve Temperature: 120⁰C Pressure: 250 Barr

SFE Cinnamon Masses 1. Cinnamon:4.0712g 2. 25mL Flask: g 3. Final: (We forgot to weight)  Super Critical Fluid Extraction Setting Oven Temperature: 100 ⁰C Valve Temperature: 110⁰C Pressure: 240 barr

Peanuts Extraction of the essential oil of peanuts was done using the SFE at the setting (Oven Temperature: 110 ⁰C, Valve Temperature: 120⁰C, Pressure: 253 barr). Thus, the experiment was ran for about minutes. Thus, g of peanut oil was extracted. A couple drops of hexane were added to the flask to dissolve the oil. The IR indicated that there a ketone peak. Also, the IR spectra of the extracted oil resembled the IR spectra of the peanut oil standard. The appearance of the oil greatly resembled that of the pure peanut oil.

Almonds Extraction of the essential oil of almonds was done using the SFE at setting (Oven Temperature: 130 ⁰C, Valve Temperature: 120⁰C, Pressure: 250 Barr) thus, the experiment was ran for about min and g of almond oil was extracted. A couple drops of hexane were added to the flask to dissolve the oil. The IR indicated that there a ketone peak. Also, the IR spectra of the extracted oil resembled the IR spectra of the Almond oil standard. The Appearance of the oil greatly resembled that of the pure almond oil.

Cinnamon Extraction of the peanuts was done using the SFE at the setting (Oven Temperature: 120 ⁰C, Valve Temperature: 110⁰C, Pressure: 240 barr). Thus, the experiment was ran for about minutes. The amount of sample that was extracted is unknown but the product was visible and the IR indicated that an essential oil was extracted. A couple drops of hexane were added to the flask to dissolve some of the product. The IR indicated that there was a ketone peak and there was some aromatics activity in the fingerprint region.. The IR of the extracted cinnamon was compared to the standard structure that we obtained (Cinnamaldehyde), and the IR showed characteristic peaks which were ketone of an aldehyde, and some aromatic peaks related to the structure. The appearance of the oil was a yellowish gold and it smelled like cinnamon!

Based on the IR spectra and IR standard spectra, we were successful at using the SFE to extract essential oils from the peanuts, almonds, and cinnamon.

We developed a reasonable method for extracting essential oils from nuts and spices, however, the temperature and pressure settings, we used for the SFE, had to be changed throughout the experiment. Thus, there is still room for improvement of the temperatures and pressure settings to make the extraction of essential oils better. Also, developing quantitative data could be done in further experiments because extraction efficiencies can be calculated and the amount of extracted product could be increased by better temperature and pressure setting and possibly with greater amount of starting material.

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