Extraction of Essential Oils from Soap

Matt MarthalerAlexa Kunch

PurposeIn this experiment the essential oils from

soap will be extracted. The instruments that will be used are the SFE and IR. Organic steam distillation will also be used. Through this experiment it will be determined if essential oils can be extracted from soap, what the best method of extraction is, and the quantity of essential oils in various soaps.

Melting PointsMelting points of each soap were

determined using Mel-Temps to obtain the maximum temperature to be used in the SFE.

Soaps Used:

Melting PointsDove Men+Care

◦Trial 1: 95-127°C◦Trial 2:111.2-139.9°C

Dove◦Trial 1: 107-115°C◦Trial 2: 110-137°C

Zest◦Trial 1:160.1-238.8°C◦Trial 2:189.3-248.0°C

Yardley London◦Trial 1:159.3-205.9°C◦Trial 2:145.7-197.5°C

Steam Distillation of Dove Men+Care

A steam distillation was used to determine an approximate yield of essential oils. This will be used for comparison with the SFE.

0.9953g of soap was placed in a 100mL round bottom flask with 35mL water and a stir bar.

The steam distillation apparatus was set up. Soap bubbles began to form in the 100mL RBF as

soon as steam distillate could be detected. Water was first used to clear away the bubbles and then glass wool was inserted into the column.

Steam Distillation of Dove Men+Care (Continued)

Due to the bubbles, only 1mL of distillate was collected.

Methylene Chloride was then used to extract the distillate in a seperatory funnel. This was repeated twice to completely separate the distillate.

A rotary evaporator was used and the sample was tested on the IR. To determine if essential oils were extracted, there should be aromatic rings, esters, aldehydes, or carboxylic acid peaks present in the IR spectra.

Steam Distillation IR

SFE of Dove Men+Care Soap2.2383g of Dove Men+Care was placed in

the SFE column. Essential oil was bubbled into a 25mL flask

with 10mL methanol (mass: 44.9150g).SFE settings:

1)Pressure-120 bar 2)Temperature-40°C3)Valve Temp-80°C4)Running Time-40 minutes

SFE Dove Men+Care IR

SFE of Yardley London Oatmeal and Almond Soap

2.990g Yardley London soap was placed in the SFE column.

Essential oil was extracted into a 25mL flask with no solvent (mass: 29.7397g). 10mL Hexane was added to the oil extract.

SFE settings: 1)Pressure-250 bar 2)Temperature-110°C3)Valve Temp-120°C4)Running Time-20 minutes

SFE of Yardley London Oatmeal and Almond Soap (Continued)

To determine the exact IR spectra for almond essential oil, IR’s of Pure Almond Oil Extract with methanol and hexane were taken, respectively.

The density of the pure almond oil was 0.92604g/mL (this was done for future use on the HPLC).

The pure almond oil had a strong carboxylic acid peak from oleic acid, which is what we looked for in the extracted almond oil.

Standard Almond Oil in Hexane IR

Yardley London Oil Extract in Hexane IR

SFE of Dove Soap2.9970g Dove soap was placed in the SFE

column. Essential oil was extracted into a 25mL flask

with no solvent (mass: 24.923g). 10mL methanol was added to the oil extract.

SFE settings: 1)Pressure-250 bar 2)Temperature-100°C3)Valve Temp-120°C4)Running Time-30 minutes

Dove Oil Extract in Methanol IR

SFE of Zest Soap3.0086g Zest soap was placed in the SFE

column. Essential oil was extracted into a 25mL flask

with no solvent (mass: 38.5932g). 10mL Hexane was added to the oil extract.

SFE settings: 1)Pressure-250 bar 2)Temperature-100°C3)Valve Temp-120°C4)Running Time-20 minutes

Zest Oil Extract in Hexane IR

ResultsSteam Distillation Data

Soap Essential Oil Mass Percent Composition of

Essential OilDove Men+Care 0.5911g 59.39%

IR interpretations are shown on spectra.

Results (Continued)SFE Data

Soap Essential Oil Mass Percent Composition of

Essential OilDove Men+Care -2.046g -91.41%Yardley London 0.3247g 10.86%

Dove 0.2626g 8.76%Zest 0.1285g 4.27%

CalculationsDetermining Percent Composition:

◦(Mass of Essential Oil Extracted/ Mass Soap Sample)X 100%= Percent Composition

◦Example: (Zest Soap)◦(0.1285g/3.0086g)X 100%= 4.27%Mass of

Essential Oil Extracted

Conclusion: What Could Have Been Done Differently

Steam Distillation of Dove Men+Care◦The bubbles began to rise up the column into our

extract (the glass wool did not prevent this). A longer column could have been used to prevent this because a three-way adaptor is not necessary for this extraction.

◦The extract had a lot of water in it, which yielded bad IR results. This could be countered by using anhydrous sulfide to dry our extract.

◦A small amount of sample was collected, so letting the distillation go for a longer period of time instead of an hour could give more product.

Conclusion: Instrumentation Errors

With the Dove Men+Care extraction, the oils were bubbled into methanol. The methanol evaporated during the extraction, which disrupted the original mass from before the oils were present. This is responsible for the negative percent composition. We stopped bubbling sample into solvents after this.

Methanol solvent was added to the Dove Men+Care and the Dove soap extracted oils. This produced poor IR spectra. Methanol was used because we wanted to run the sample on the GC-MS.

All samples except Zest (our last sample) were run on the SFE for too long and yielded oil and other products. This is why our percent compositions were high as they should be around 1-5%.

In the last IR’s run, there was something wrong with the IR and our spectra was incomprehensible. We could try to take an IR of oil without solvents in the future.

Conclusion In conclusion, our experiment was quasi-successful.

We were able to extract essential oils from soaps, which can be seen by the IR spectrum. We discovered steam distillation is not the best way to extract essential oils from soap and the SFE worked much better. We determined the best settings for extraction using the SFE and what solvent to use for the IR. Due to time constraints and other students using the instruments, we were not able to use the HPLC and the GC-MS. Our quantitative data could be improved using the knowledge that we have now.

References

http://www.essentialoils.co.za/components.htm http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfvie

wer?sid=e3ad09fb-dd7f-4887-b227-5225c85377ba%40sessionmgr4&vid=7&hid=13

http://webbook.nist.gov/cgi/cbook.cgi?ID=112-80-1

http://144.206.159.178/ft/1000/31741/551209.pdf http://www.raysahelian.com/almond.html