Optimization of the Synthesis Conditions for Carvacrol Derivatives Rini Retnosari (1,2) and Jalifah Latip (1*)
1) Department of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
2) Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematic and Natural Science, Universitas Negeri Malang, Jl. Semarang No. 5 Malang, Indonesia
*Corresponding author: jalifah[at]ukm.edu.my
Abstract
Among the aromatic monoterpenoids, carvacrol has been noticed by organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry researchers as a building block for developing new drugs. The popularity of carvacrol is based on their various biological activities. Unfortunately, the utilization of carvacrol is limited due to its hydrophobicity and volatility nature. The transformation or chemical modification of carvacrol to its ester derivatives is needed to overcome the limitations. The ester derivatives of carvacrol have already been synthesized by using conventional methods. The carvacryl ester is formed by mixing carvacrol and chloroacetyl chloride in the presence of triethylamine. However, optimization of the synthesis conditions is still needed to improve the yield as well as reducing the reaction time. This research is designed to explore the green synthesis of carvacrol derivatives starting with the utilization of microwave irradiation in the formation of the carvacryl ester. The result showed that microwave irradiation is not suitable to be applied in the synthesis of carvacryl ester from carvacrol and chloroacetyl chloride. The applied high temperature and pressure was found to be unsuitable due to the volatility nature of chloroacetyl chloride. Alternatively, another attempt which is aimed to reduce the reaction time of the conventional methods is executed via utilizing different solvents. We hereby discuss this ongoing work.
