Kawinthida Hirunworawuttikul!

Bell 11-04
Drug Extraction

A particular plant in Amazon Jungle has a drug in it. In order to extract the drug out from the
plant, we have to break the bark into small pieces. Add water and acetic acid, then heat them. After
that, we bring them to filter the wastes and add bases to the solution, then the precipitate will occur.
Now, we get the drug when the solution precipitates by filtering the precipitated solution. All of the
substances used are significant to this extracting method because they function in this drug
extracting process. Each step in this method is required and there are reasons of the significance of
each step being done.
Alkaloid is consisted in amine group, which is usually found in plant and usually being used
to make drugs. Alkaloid is not yet soluble in water. There are two forms of alkaloids called freebase form and salts form. Alkaloid is soluble in water in salt form, but less soluble in alcohol. On
the other hand, alkaloid in free base form is soluble in alcohol, but less soluble in water. To have a
salt form of alkaloid, we have to use weak acid to create this formation. Acids in aqueous solution
produce hydrogen ions which creates polar to alkaloid and makes it soluble. Base produces
hydroxide ions which dont create polar for alkaloid.
According to the drug-extracting method we use, every process is significant. The first step
is to break the bark into smaller pieces. We have to break the bark in order for the reaction to go
faster because the greater surface area the bark has, the faster the reaction will occur. The next step
is adding the bark into reaction vessel with water and add acetic acid. We add acetic because
alkaloid is more soluble in water if the alkaloid is in a salt form than in free base form. Acid will
make the alkaloid be in a salt form. We choose to use the acetic acid because it is the safest acid to
use and it is weak, so it wont affect the bark and drug in the solution. It wont be very dangerous
for us if we breathe in while doing this. The purpose of this step is to get the alkaloid out from the
bark. Acid gives hydrogen ion, then the alkaloid will have polar. After we add the acetic acid and
the alkaloid become soluble, we boil the mixture overnight, around 24 hours. One of the important
factors that affect the reaction rate is the temperature. The higher temperature means the molecules
bounce more, so the reaction will speed up. Thus, we heat the mixture to speed up the reaction. The
forth step is filter the mixture to remove the undissolved material. We only want the mixture that
contains drug, so we dont need the undissolved material anymore. We filter out those wastes from
our mixture. After we get the filtrate, we add base to it to reach a pH of 9-10. We have to add base
to the mixture because as mentioned that if alkaloid is added by acid, it will become more soluble,
so in order to make it precipitate, we have to make it non-soluble. Base makes alkaloid become
soluble because alkaloid wont have polar anymore. After adding the base to the mixture, the
alkaloid will precipitate and it will be separated from water. The last step, filter out the precipitate.
This step is the final step, and the purpose of this step is to get the filtrate, which is the drug that is
ready for the company to do test on it.

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Acid/Base in daily life
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Acids and bases are all around us in our daily life and we need it. Acid is very important to
us, for instance, we use toothpaste to brush our teeth which contains acid, soaps we use everyday
also made up of acid, or even in food or beverage contains acid too. One common use of acid must
be the acid in our stomach. We cant digest food if there is no acid. We will get huge impacts if we
lack of acid. One common use of base is all kind of cleaners in our house. Bleach, deodorants, glass
cleaner, and dish detergent are all made up of base.

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Kawinthida Hirunworawuttikul!
Bell 11-04
Precipitation Reaction

An example for precipitation reaction is using aluminium sulfate in purifying water. The
reason that the precipitate reaction happens is because when add aluminium sulfate in water,
aluminium ion will be created. When aluminium ion is created, it will give proton and aluminium
hydroxide and they will pull the suspension in water that has ion to come together. When those
suspensions seize together, they will get heavy and then they will precipitate, then the water is
purified.

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References
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Chest Of Books. (N.D.). Alkaloids [online]. Available: http://chestofbooks.com/health/materiamedica-drugs/Pharmacology-Therapeutics-Prescription-Writing/2-Alkaloids.html#.VMM7gEv1JFI

[Saturday, 24 January 2015 8:44:47]

Chem4Kids. (N.D.). Rate of Reaction [online]. Available: http://www.chem4kids.com/files/

react_rates.html [Sunday, 25 January 2015 9:11:58]

Iieu, N. D. (N.D.). General Characteristics of Alkaloids [online]. Available:

http://www.epharmacognosy.com/2012/07/general-characteristics-of-alkaloids.html [Sunday, 25
January 2015 9:15:34]

Broderick, C.; Moussa, M.; Clark, J. (N.D.) Acid/Base Basics [online]. Available: http://
chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Physical_Chemistry/Acids_and_Bases/Acid [Sunday, 25 January 2015
9:23:56]

Clark, J. (2002). Theories of Acids and Bases [online]. Available: http://www.chemguide.co.uk/

physical/acidbaseeqia/theories.html [Sunday, 25 January 2015 9:37:41]

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