Popularization
30 April 2020
Hydrosol obtained with Explorer (an Alchemia Solution Still) Corine Lormel, PhD Samples often contain very different molecules. In analytical laboratories, finding the instrument which will identify and quantify them is the first step. For this purpose, the chemist must ensure that the chosen method can “separate” the compounds of interest but also makes them “visible”
Popularization
5 February 2020
Corine Lormel , PhD As suggested by the Latin declension of the title, this February we will look at a series of blog posts on the theme of roses. In this first post, we will start with a historical overview of the rose’s botany and a summary of the main methods to produce rose derivative
Discoveries
21 January 2020
In the past few days, we have distilled by Clevenger leaves of Pogostemon Heyneanus (Indian patchouli). To give you a brief summary, here is the experiment in few figures: Leaves mass : 318 g. We have used frozen leaves, and have grinded them with a mortar. Distillation duration : 4 hours. Essential oil obtained :
Activities and Events
6 January 2020
Corine Lormel, Ph.D. In the past month, several pictures of chemistry Christmas trees also named chemistrees probably blossomed in your news feeds. As some of us in the laboratory, you assume this phenomenon is recent and the pioneers are very passionate about chemistry. Of course, a bunch of enthusiasts is necessary but those who have
Popularization
13 December 2019
Corine Lormel, Ph.D. Some customers are surprised to see a compound named ‘’Unknown’’ in the listing of their essential oils analysis reports. Why do chemists keep them in all reports? Are they just unidentified compounds? Why don’t chemists try to identify them? In this paper, we will try to understand what is behind the famous
Popularization
27 November 2019
Corine Lormel, Ph.D. You probably don’t know these terms, but you will soon! Environmental concerns are not limited yet to the public domain! These last years, labs environmental impact, that went unnoticed, has been rising. Just two weeks ago, The Guardian (Bell, 2019) published an article focusing on the “addiction to plastic” in the labs
Popularization
21 October 2019
Benoit Roger (Ph. D.), Hubert Marceau (B. Sc., chemist), Alexis St-Gelais (M. Sc., chemist) Have you ever tried cooking pasta atop a high mountain? OK, this is a weird introduction, but you’ll see the link. Everybody ‘’knows“ that (pure) water freezes at 0 °C and boils at 100 °C and in everyday life, this is a good
Research notes
Benoit Roger (Ph. D.), Hubert Marceau (B. Sc., chemist), Alexis St-Gelais (M. Sc., chemist) Have you ever tried cooking pasta atop a high mountain? OK, this is a weird introduction, but you’ll see the link. Everybody ‘’knows’’ that (pure) water freezes at 0 °C and boils at 100 °C and in everyday life, this is
Research notes
13 September 2019
Alexis St-Gelais (M. Sc., Chemist), Benoit Roger, Kim Desrosiers, Hubert Marceau This poster (awarded a Poster Prize) was presented to the scientific community during the 50th International Symposium on Essential Oils in Vienna, Austria, on September 9th-11th 2019. Click here to see the poster as a PDF. Thanks to Lavinia Alexandru for the photo. Entitled Chemometric
Activities and Events
7 June 2019
Alexis St-Gelais, M. Sc., Chemist – Activities and Events PhytoChemia has always been proud to provide the essential oils community with GC-FID results obtained from a dual-column system – just as it is done in academia. This powerful approach is able to solve most coelutions and reach a high level of detail in analyses in