my favorite new smell is this yellow/brown camphor, I can't go a day without sticking my face to the bottle and inhaling (like you might do with a bag of freshly roasted beans). A sharp and fresh camphor which melds into sweet sassafrassy cologne... (inhales deeply)
So I distill it's components. Sadly its a bit like cutting open the goose in search of the golden egg. The essence can never be recreated...
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so we set up an apparatus with a short-path w/ vigreux column, a 3-way adapter, thermometer, and three round bottom flasks. joints are greased with high-vac greased and joints clipped. In the distillation flask is placed 100mL of yellow/brown camphor oil with a teflon stirbar. The flask placed in a heating mantle connected to a variac regulator and this is placed on top of a magnetic stir plate.
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The condenser hoses attached and vacuum hose leading to vacuum trap and the pump. Vacuum trap is cooled to about -35C using a mixture of saturated CaCl2 and some snow from outside.
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The pump is turned on and a vacuum of approximately 1mmHg is reached. The absolute vacuum of this pump can reach 0.08mmHg but the gauge isn't that sensitive so for sake we say its ~1mmHg
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First fraction to come over was at 50-60C @ ~1mmHg (~60mLs)
This smelled strongly of eucalyptus. The drip rate was very fast, and this was the largest fraction in the oil
Second fraction came over at 80-90C @ ~1mmHg (~15mL)
this fraction smelled strongly of camphor, and had a tendency of crystallizing inside the condenser column.
The third fraction came over at 95-110C @ ~1mmHg (~15mL) and smelled candy sweet, strongly of safrole, but with a hint of something else, almost like Buckleys cough syrup.
The reminding red tar in the flask (~10mL) continued to distill over at +140C, but started to smoke. at this point the distillation was stopped. The residue that distilled over smelled slightly sweet but burnt.
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Expect nothing, Receive everything.
"Experiment and extrapolation is the only means the organic chemists (humans) currrently have - in contrast to "God" (and possibly R. B. Woodward). "
He alone sees truly who sees the Absolute the same in every creature...seeing the same Absolute everywhere, he does not harm himself or others. - The Bhagavad Gita
"The most beautiful thing we can experience, is the mysterious. The source of all true art and science."