Isolation of Thymol from Carom Seeds

TCE

The Chemical Educator

ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)

Table of Contents

Abstract Volume 20 (2015) pp 72-73

Isolation of Thymol from Carom Seeds

Ram S. Mohan* and Leonard T. Onsen

Laboratory for Environmentally Friendly Organic Synthesis, Department of Chemistry, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, IL 61701, rmohan@iwu.edu
Received November 17, 2014. Accepted January 20, 2015.

Published: 30 March 2015

Abstract. A simple protocol for the isolation and characterization of thymol from Trachyspermum ammi, commonly known as Bishop’s weed or carom seed, is reported. Carom seeds are commonly used in Indian cooking as a digestive aid, to treat stomach pain, and for their carminative properties. The protocol, developed as an experiment for introductory organic chemistry laboratories, provides instruction in natural product isolation, chromatographic techniques, acid-base concepts and NMR spectroscopy.

Key Words: Laboratories and Demonstrations; organic chemistry; inquiry-based/discovery learning; acids-bases; natural products; chromatography; NMR spectroscopy

(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: rmohan@iwu.edu )

Article in PDF format (54 KB) HTML format

Supporting Materials:

Experimental procedures, student handouts and copies of ¹H, ¹³C NMR spectra and IR spectra are provided. (1.86MB)