Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello, I am trying to find out how to go about seperating the compounds in herb oil. I have worked with oil as whole last year and tested it for antimicrobial effects, but this year I am trying to see if there is a way to separate the compounds and work with just one of them. What type of lab I would need for doing bit? What equipment I should be looking for in a lab to perform this test? Thank you very much in advance.
Rebekah.

Hi,

Many herbal oils could contain lots and lots of compounds, up to several thousand, although only one or a few compounds might be present in fairly large amoimts. To find out which compounds are in the oil most chemists would start by using gas or liquid chromatography, perhaps coupled with either a mass spectrometer or infrared spectrometer. The gas or liquid chromatograph separates the compounds so they come out og the vchromatograph at different times. If the chromatograph feeds into a scanning mass spectrometer or infrared spectrometer or Nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer the spectrum of the peak can be used to search libraries compound spectra to identify individual compounds. To separate a specific compound out once it is identified, one common technique is to use a preparatory liquid chromatograph. Science buddies has projects on paper chromatography which illustrate some of the principles involved:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p008.shtml

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p009.shtml

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p010.shtml

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p006.shtml

You are asking about a huge and complicated question that may turn out to be way beyond the scope of a normal science fair project.:

http://floraleads.com/hoil.htm

http://www.springerlink.com/content/w7v614643xx57510/

http://www.chromatography-online.org/to ... /oils.html

My basic advice/answer is that it is essential for you to come up with a far narrower question/topic that you can actually do in a few weeks.

Best wishes in finding a suitable project and completing it successfully!!! you might start by consulting the Science Buddies Project Idea Guide:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... deas.shtml

Best regards,

Barrett L. Tomlinson