Essential oils are increasingly popular amongst undergraduate students and are often found in personal care products such as lotions, soaps, and room sprays. Some essential oils are thought to promote relaxation, to energize, or to sharpen focus. These oils are complex mixtures of small organic molecules that are ideally suited for analysis by NMR spectroscopy. We have designed a two-week experiment for the first semester organic chemistry laboratory, inspired by attendance at the cCWCS workshop on Medicinal Plants, that can be easily adapted to upper level spectroscopy courses. In this experiment, students use steam distillation to isolate the essential oil from lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), or apple mint (Mentha suaveolens). Measured competencies in this experiment include using TLC, IR, and 1H NMR to identify components in a mixture. The small molecule components can also be readily characterized by 13C NMR and provide opportunities to interpret more complex splitting patterns in 1H NMR in upper-level applications.

NMR analysis of essential oils: An adaptable (and fragrant!) laboratory experiment

2019 Spring National Meeting

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