Making Wintergreen (a minty odor and flavoring)

In this video I will be making Wintergreen, or methyl salicylate, using methanol and salicylic acid.

The reaction carried out is known as a Fischer esterification reaction

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[davidfiscus]

Thank you for taking the time to upload all of these videos. I suffered a stroke 2 years ago, and it lead me to be on long term disability. Basically means I am medically retired. I worked 37 years in IT, going back to mainframes in the 70's. I am also in the USA martial arts Hall of Fame. Then one day I have a stroke, and BAM...not working and struggling to regain my mental and physical capabilities. So I found myself looking for a purpose, still into marital arts, doing more teaching these days. But I have decided to go back to things that interested me in my youth, the sciences. I am bought chemistry sets, lab glassware, chemicals, and of course books. I stumbled onto your videos accidently, but I am happy I did.I appreciate the quality, the substance, the topics and experiments you have chosen. I appreciate the detail of the dialog, and the description of the tools / tubes you use. I see so many for sale on ebay, but was many of them don't have their correct names. So thank you, I have subscribed to you, and look forward to more experiments on video. Sincerely, David Fiscus

[purerizzo]

I'm not even a chemist and your videos are fascinating. Thanks mate!

[TheApoohneicie]

‘Don’t eat anything you make in the lab.’

Later: ‘Edible chemistry!’ 🙂😂

[DaffyDaffyDaffy]

As you were saying not to drink it but to smell it at the end, I thought of "inhale this but do not touch".

[kristofwewlad]

I have a friend who really likes your videos and he showed me this channel because I really love chemistry. I'll be majoring in chemical engineering when I enter college and I was wondering on an off note, for the sake of people like my friend who has hearing issues, have you thought of making accurate captions to your videos? I'd be happy enough to do it because I really believe you are making something accessible to all and you should keep up the awesome work! Loved your video on cellulose extraction, it was super interesting!

[TheyWhoRemains]

"As a rule, you should never eat anything made in a lab"

Up Next: Making mint flavoring from aspirin | Edible Chem

LOL

[ralfista]

This stuff actually occurs naturally and makes outright huge crystals. These crystals have two oxidation states, one brown, rough, state covering the whole crystal, and one slightly greener, more fluffy one. This greener state is actually edible (chewable) and tastes rather nice.

[williamsmith]

Hi the name wintergreen actually comes from a small shrub called Gaultheria procumbens, which is also known as teaberry. Some birch trees also have this smell, like yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis). Several different plants have this aroma. Methyl salicylate is used also in Listerine.

[derkateramabend]

Wouldn't it be a lot easier to add some molecular sieves in order to remove the water and thus shift the equlibrium? Le Châtelier predicts that the equilibrium will shift heavily to the product side...

[MysticalPerformer]

Thank you sir for explaining the mechanism. It is handy fir me to do the lab report.

[LukaszSebastian]

Sugar is triboluminescent by itself, doesn't need additional chemicals. I've tested it many times, especially good effects can be observed by crushing big sugar crystals between two pieces of glass.

[skankinwitch]

I remember learning about triboluminescence when I went to a winter camp in 6th grade. We snowshoed onto a frozen lake in the dead of night just to stargaze and snap wintergreen lifesavers.

keep up the good work man. I'm absolute shit in my chemistry class but your videos are much more entertaining than a 75 year old woman who speaks in monotone. not to mention she's not a chemist she's a geologist

[raulthehoopie]

I repeated a few of your procedures and I love your videos/technique. Keep the chemistry coming! By the way, the product after distillation of this video can reach >99% by GC/MS, I didnt run an NMR because I wasn't sure of the expected spectra.

[porygnalTTV]

This is my first video from your channel and I'm already subbed! Keep up the good work :)

[LaraSchilling]

Now we're talking cosmetic chemistry! Wintergreen is found in some lip glosses to give a "plumping" effect via controlled irritation. Can't go past our fave Beta, though - desquamates AND reduces inflammation at the same time.

Nerding out here!

[curlyhairdudeify]

I use a 10% menthol, and 15%methyl salycilate muscle cream on my forehead. Just a tiny bit smeared all over my forehead... It did wonders to elimate acne.

[kleetus]

Interesting, we did this in our chem class in college like 20 years ago when we were making esters. I forget how we goofed it up exactly, but we ended up tossing the aqueous part, and got horrible yields. Imagine that, we threw out the good stuff...

Great video, thank you for the memories of that wonderful week, where someone always ended up spilling butryic acid and making the entire wing smell like barf for a month... lol!

[kimyauzerine]

When the reaction for esterification is completed, the alcohol is evaporated. If you neutralize the acid before adding water, further hydrolysis will be prevented. and the efficiency may be higher.

[jborrello]

Whelp, I have no clue what the fuck is going on but I enjoy it :)

[gregcase]

methylsalicylic acid can be used as a painkiller and blood thinner in small doses much like aspirin. a natural effect of chewing the plant itself