> Using a shallow dish is a good idea because it has less
> distance to fall and it falls very slowly.
(from pic 58)
Someone should tell that experiemnter that sedimentation is best done in a high and narror container! It takes longer but at least all that insoluble plant material crap will not be carried over like he is doing now. Also, why didn't he use filtrations? Decanting is really a poor alternative both yield- and purity-wise. He could also do with much less recrystallizations and washings by not merely decanting the solvent (and thereby leaving half the shit in with his goodies), but e.g. using a pasteur pipet with a cotton ball inside as a filtration apparatus and getting the last solvent drops out by sticking a piece of filter paper into his vial and using it to suck up most of the solvent residues each time.
(Nice writeup, but it hurts to see such bad and wasteful lab technique!
)