video tutorial Ibuprofen extraction and optical isomerism

Name: video tutorial - Ibuprofen extraction and optical isomerism
Uploaded: 2025-12-11T09:03:44.295Z
Duration: 14 min 18 s
Description: tablets today we're going to extract and purify ibuprofen from these and also...milligrams of ibuprofen so that's 16 grams in total

Topic: extraction and purification of ibuprofen from OTC tablets; analysis of the ibuprofen molecule, including chirality (optical isomers).
Starting material: 40 tablets of 400 mg ibuprofen each (16 g ibuprofen total; 9 g filler/binder per 25 g tablet batch).
First method (alkaline extraction): crush tablets, try dissolving with sodium hydroxide to form water-soluble sodium ibuprofen salt; fails due to gel formation from cellulose binders; water extraction not viable.
Second method (organic solvent extraction): use acetone to dissolve ibuprofen while leaving binders intact; filter, evaporate solvent to obtain crude ibuprofen.
Discussion of optical isomers: ibuprofen contains a chiral center; two enantiomers exist; general properties similar, but interactions with mirror-image molecules can differ; in biology, proteins are chiral, causing activity differences.
Purification sequence: re-dissolve crude ibuprofen in sodium hydroxide to form sodium salt; re-precipitate with hydrochloric acid; filter and dry to yield pure ibuprofen (7.5 g) with ~94% recovery from the starting batch.
Additional notes: some colored non-generic tablets have outer coatings that must be removed before organic extraction (soak in absolute ethanol can help); otherwise, coating disrupts extraction.
Safety and future work: plan to rig up equipment and establish safety procedures before further experiments.