Trimyristin Isolation from Nutmeg Discussion

Trimyristin was isolated from ground nutmeg seed using t-butyl methyl ether to yield 29% crude product.  The crude trimyristin was recrystallized once to yield 40% of product and recrystallized a second time to yield 10% of pure product.  The starting material, ground nutmeg seed, contains many more compounds than just trimyristin, which would explain why the yields appear to be of small value.  As the purity of the product increased through successive recrystallizations, the amount of product obtained decreased as the mass of the impurities or other compounds were lost.  Excessive heating could have caused some reactant to evaporate out of the distillation column, and the cotton fiber may have absorbed some of the solution when performing pressure filtration.  The purity is represented in the melting points of the products.  The first recrystallized product had a melting point of 48-50 °C, and the second recrystallized product had a melting point of 50-52 °C.  Both of these ranges suggest that impurities were present because they are lower than the literature value melting point of trimyristin is 56-57 °C.  However, after each successive recrystallization the melting point became closer to the accepted value for trimyristin indicating the removal of most impurities.  The product is still assumed to be trimyristin.