SWIM knows of someone who has a small amount of sassafras EO, SWIM suggested it be put in a freezer to see if there were any goods but swim is wondering how long someone should wait to see if any crystallization occurs? Days? Weeks?

I think its a pain, you should place a small vial in there as well as you will find this freezes first and scrape that into the larger one as a seed crystal.

No matter how you look at it I think its a pain when distillation goes in a few hours but I have only work with fresh home grown oils. Maybe some where luckier and using commercial oils the degradation of the oil over time made this a simpler process.

Can we not SWIM? god nothing stands out as much as SWIM in big capital letters.

the total volume will always freeze if it freezes, it is what temp it begins melting at that indicates purity. And as for that oil, i believe you are aware of the plant it was sourced from, one should be able to tell alot about purity from that alone. Then 2x 5% NaOH wash then water wash, then 20%GAA wash 2x then water wash again.. then either distill or use it straight. (assuming it is american 90+ stuff)

Can we not SWIM? god nothing stands out as much as SWIM in big capital letters.

the total volume will always freeze if it freezes, it is what temp it begins melting at that indicates purity. And as for that oil, i believe you are aware of the plant it was sourced from, one should be able to tell alot about purity from that alone. Then 2x 5% NaOH wash then water wash, then 20%GAA wash 2x then water wash again.. then either distill or use it straight. (assuming it is american 90+ stuff)

Thanks Shake, I was looking at the congeling point references on Rhod's that makes sence, as the fluid reaches a lower temperature and freezes it will also freeze the other products produced. I read about the application of naOH for removing Eugenol content in TS2

Fish have been swimming for a very long time, but newbees don't on this web site    As far as your query, perhaps this article that was hosted on Rhodium will answer your question    You could have found this information by using any number of search engines, that's for sure 

Hi Lugh, im not sure what that is implying but thanks for answering anyway. I did look at the article on Rhods but my interpretation was a little off as there is a lot of reference to "Freezing Sassafras" online and in a number of underground books. Also, I had a look at the attached and my German? or Africaans? is not very good.. but thanks anyway.

Long ago I heard reports of a sassafras oil containing about 75% safrole in a freezer, it took two weeks to freeze, then froze solid.  Saving a few seed crystals, melting and recrystallizing gave a satisfactory initial separation.  After that, seed crystals weren't needed, repeated melting and freezing resulted in excellent separation.

I'm not sure what to think about these freezing comments. The cat next door has some water-white saf distilled out of e/o he already knows is high-90s %, and the saf has been in the freezer for months and has not crystallized in any way. He has no doubt that it's the goods, but it's not freezing solid by any means. Could this be simply because it's not totally pure? Like maybe it's got 2% or 3% of some other fraction that doesn't let the saf crystallize? If so, why would the saf in oldguy's story freeze in two weeks, and this not at all?

If you ran it from a column you shouldn't have ANYTHING to worry about. Could also check the BP to make sure which is much easier and more accurate then freezing point usually with whats on hand, same concept.

Thats curious.  I never distill with a column and my sass always freezes right away.  I'd be really concerned if it didn't crystallize TBH.  Even if the impurity is a couple percent it shouldn't prevent it from crystallizing in the freezer

Thanks for the comments guys!! Good thread

Thats curious.  I never distill with a column and my sass always freezes right away.  I'd be really concerned if it didn't crystallize TBH.  Even if the impurity is a couple percent it shouldn't prevent it from crystallizing in the freezer

I wonder if it could have something to do with the fact that it's 10-11 years old...? Could it degrade simply with time, but in a way that isn't visible (or smellable)? Hope not, as that's the only supply the cat has...

I'll suggest he try scratching the glass of the bottle a bit to see if this helps.

You know what though, I just recalled something else... when I was using the exact same material 10 years ago, it did the same thing... that is, it remained just a water-white semi-viscous fluid in the freezer.