Benzaldehyde: Oil of Bitter Almonds by Steam Distillation

Benzaldehyde is the oil of bitter almonds. It is not in the almond as such: crushed with cold water, the almond's own ferment splits its amygdalin into benzaldehyde, hydrocyanic acid and sugar. Thorpe (1912): press out the fatty oil, cream the cake with cold water, leave it a day, and steam-distil. Hydrocyanic acid comes over with it and is deadly: work outdoors, never alone, and take it out with lime and ferrous sulphate. The picture: our own drawing.

Advanced

2 days

Hazardous content

This blueprint contains hazardous procedures. Log in and enable hazardous content in your account settings to view the step-by-step instructions.

This blueprint makes

Placeholder

Benzaldehyde

Free

CC0 Public Domain

This blueprint is released under CC0. You are free to copy, modify, distribute, and use this work for any purpose, without asking permission.

Support the Maker by purchasing products through their Blueprint where they earn a Maker Commission set by Vendors, or create a new iteration of this Blueprint and include it as a connection in your own Blueprint to share revenue.

Discussion

(0)

Loading comments...