Even though the rotary evaporator (or rotovap for short) looks pretty complicated, it’s really pretty simple. The purpose of the rotovap is to remove low boiling organic chemicals, usually solvents, from a mixture of compounds. The rotary evaporator is the method of choice for solvent removal in the modern organic laboratory. The solvents or low boiling compounds are removed by a simple distillation. The rotovap is designed to be operated under a vacuum (to lower a compound’s boiling point) while heating the sample at the same time. A cold finger is used to condense the vapors to a liquid, which are trapped in a separate flask.

Rotary evaporator is famous for its wide uses in many fields. It can be applied for the extraction and concentration of substances in chemical labs, people’s daily life at kitchen to concentrate juices or food, make up and perfume, industrial uses and other uses. Rotary evaporator is very resource-saving and has a very high efficiency. Because under the action of vacuum and high temperature, the substances’ boiling points will decrease, which will save a lot of energy and time. So some people might wonder how the substances’ boiling points change and what they will be, then let’s go through it together. The different boiling points of rotary evaporator ’s extracted substances are as follows:

The boiling point of Cannabis

Most people extract cannabis at chemical labs for pharmaceutical use, entertainment use and other uses. They mostly choose to extract cannabis by rotary evaporator, because the rotary evaporator equipment has vacuum and high temperature, which get cannabis evaporated more easily than at normal pressure and temperature. When cannabis is extracted by rotary evaporator , it’s boiling point is around 160-180°C. Rotary evaporator not only improves the purity of the cannabis in the finished product, but also removes the neurotoxic component tetrahydrocannabinol, which improves product safety, and is suitable for industrial production.

The boiling point of juice

At people’s daily life, they also use rotary evaporator at kitchen very often. They use rotary evaporator to concentrate fruit juices or food very often, in order to get a better taste and smoother juices. Under the action of vacuum and high temperature, the boiling point of fruit juices is around 50-60°C, which is much lower than at normal pressure and temperature.