Steam distillation is widely used to obtain essential oils. Orange peels and cin
ID: 505567 • Letter: S
Question
Steam distillation is widely used to obtain essential oils. Orange peels and cinnamon contain 10 to 20 % essential oil. Identify two reasons why the percent recovery in this lab was lower than the actual % of oil in the source. (do not list human error - perfect execution of this procedure would still provide a much lower % of oil isolated. What were some limitations of the procedure as performed?). Steam distillation is widely used to obtain essential oils. Orange peels and cinnamon contain 10 to 20 % essential oil. Identify two reasons why the percent recovery in this lab was lower than the actual % of oil in the source. (do not list human error - perfect execution of this procedure would still provide a much lower % of oil isolated. What were some limitations of the procedure as performed?). Steam distillation is widely used to obtain essential oils. Orange peels and cinnamon contain 10 to 20 % essential oil. Identify two reasons why the percent recovery in this lab was lower than the actual % of oil in the source. (do not list human error - perfect execution of this procedure would still provide a much lower % of oil isolated. What were some limitations of the procedure as performed?).Explanation / Answer
Orange oil can be extracted by various conventional methods like steam distillation, solvent extraction. Novel methods like super critical CO2 extraction, turbo distillation also has been employed. The conventional methods though simple are robust and the yield percentage is less whereas the novel methods are not cost effective. Essential oils contain highly volatile substances that can be isolated by a physical method or process from plants of a single botanical species. Steam distillation for temperature sensitive materials like oils, resins, hydrocarbons, etc. which are insoluble in water and may decompose at their boiling point can be prevented by using Steam Distillation method at low pressure.