Extraction of orange peel oil C0202

High School Chemistry

A classic experiment showing the extraction of oil from orange peel.

Orange peel is heated in water in a 250ml round bottomed flask in a distillation apparatus.

As the water boils, steam passes over into the condenser carrying the volatile orange peel oil with it. The steam and oil condense into liquids in the condenser.

The oil collects as a thin layer of colourless liquid on the surface of the distillate.

When the first sample of distillate with orange peel oil is shaken with bromine water, the bromine water turns from orange to colourless.

This shows evidence for the presence of an alkene in the orange peel oil.

The alkene is limonene.

An example of an experimental worksheet from The Royal Society of Chemistry can be found here
https://edu.rsc.org/resources/extract...

Further tests and investigations on the oil can be carried out if enough of it is collected.