help with some questions please During the extraction of trimyristin from nutmeg
ID: 922139 • Letter: H
Question
help with some questions please
During the extraction of trimyristin from nutmeg, two students were given different samples of nutmeg. They noticed that one sample was very fragrant with the characteristic odor of nutmeg, while the other one looked old and was not very fragrant at all. When they asked their instructor about it, she told them it would be OK to proceed with both samples. Still skeptical, they performed the experiment and compared their results. It seemed that there was not much difference: they had approximately identical quantities of the isolated product, with almost identical melting point. Explain.
Explanation / Answer
The nutmeg is about half cellulose. The other major components are fats, 25-40%, and essential oils,
8-15%
Trimyristin (C45H86O6.) is a saturated fat which is the triglyceride of myristic acid. Trimyristin is a white to yellowish-gray solid that is insoluble in water, but soluble in ethanol, benzene, chloroform, dichloromethane, and ether..It is non volatile and hence not responsible for the fragrant smell of nutmeg.
It is the volatile essential oils in the nutmeg which give the characteristic odor to nutmeg, With ageing nutmeg loses the volatile essential oils and become less fragrant without any change in their fat content.
Nutmeg samples with different fragrant levels differ only in the volatile essential oil content. and not in the non volatile trimyristn content.
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