Microwave-Assisted Isolation of Eugenol from Cloves

An experiment for the undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory involving a method for the isolation of eugenol from cloves has been developed. The experiment employs microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) of the essential oil from whole cloves using aqueous ethanol and the subsequent isolation of eugenol by acid–base extraction. The MAE allows for extraction of the essential oil in a fraction of the time of steam-distillation, which is commonly part of a second-year undergraduate laboratory experience. The experiment combines multiple lab techniques and reinforces the introduction of spectroscopy in first-semester organic chemistry.