i've been distilling bay leaves to get good at distillation...i'm set up properly, but my distillate is not seperating into distinct layers in the seperatory funnel...instead, i get one big layer of cloudy water with a very strong smell.
what would be the best way to isolate the oil? i tried salting the mess, but now i just have salt at the bottom of the funnel.
any ideas?
Extract with some DCM or other non-polar solvent and distill off the solvent to leave the oil.
that's what i thought, but hearing it from an experienced chemist and reading it in a textbook are two diff things...thanks for the help!