Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Cells, Microbes & Viruses => Topic started by: myriam on 07/10/2010 12:17:08
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what is the best way to purify a molecule from a natural extract?
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Depends on the molecule.
Typically it would involve solvent extraction:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid-liquid_extraction
And then column chromatography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Column_chromatography
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what is the best way to purify a molecule from a natural extract?
Do bear in mind that “natural” is not a synonym (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synonym) for “safe”, “healthy” or “beneficial”.
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what is the best way to purify a molecule from a natural extract?
Do bear in mind that “natural” is not a synonym (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synonym) for “safe”, “healthy” or “beneficial”.
Yes, you need not pore your energies into anything unsafe, unhealth, and non beneficial.
The non homogenized compounds will do, but react not as fast.
All kidding aside...
An example of, to an addition to, what RD had pointed out, Purity.
"Note that only 96.5% ethanol can be obtained by regular distillation of alcohol & water. Absolute ethanol (100%) is made by distilling with benzene (poisonous) (an azeotropic mixture of benzene, alcohol & water distills at 65C and removes the last few percent of water), by vacuum distillation, or by chemical means (eg using drying agents like molecular seives - which with holes of 3 Angstrom (one Angstrom is one ten billionth of a meter) can seperate water (which has a diameter of 2.5 Angstroms) from ethanol (which has a diameter of 4.5 Angstroms)). Update Phil advises me that most major commercial distilleries in Australia use Cyclohexane rather than Benzene."
http://homedistiller.org/theory.htm