Objectives: determine the solubility of a variety of solutes in several solvents.

Liebermann-Burchard test: Formation of a green or green-blue color after a few minutes is positive. Ideally, the cholesterol solution gives a nice reaction, the coconut oil should show no significant color change, and the lard gives a weak reaction.

Solubility test: The difference is the functional group the cottonseed oil contains. An ether is an oxygen placed in the chain, so somewhere in the cottonseed oil there is a chain looking like this: R-O-R', R and R' being carbon chains. Ethyl alcohol is an -OH group on the end of a 2-carbon chain. So ethyl alcohol is in the cottonseed oil somewhere as this: CH3-CH2-OH

Test for unsaturation:

This test identifies the level of saturation and the number of bonds a oil, fat or lipid has. The more unsaturated, multi-bonded, the lipid is, the more it absorbs iodine. The less iodine it absords, the lipid is considered to be saturated,single bonded. acrolein test:

The principle behind the acrolein test is a specific chemical reaction. This reaction is utilized to determine the presence of glycerin in a fat. By heating the fat sample in the presence of potassium bisulfate (KHSO4), which acts as a dehydrating agent, acrolein (C3H4O, or CH2=CHCHO) is formed and can easily be detected by its odor. Whenever fat is heated in the presence of a dehydrating agent, the fat molecule will shed its glycerol in the form of the unsaturated aldehyde - acrolein. Acrolein smells like burned grease, and this toxic chemical was used in the first World War as a chemical weapon. Even in small concentrations, exposure irritates the mucous membranes and

causes the eyes to tear up. It can incapacitate individuals very quickly at levels of only a few parts per million. Saponificaton:
The process is often termed saponification, since it was first observed to take place in the manufacture of soap. The term saponification (instead of the more exact term hydrolysis) is, however, applied indiscriminately and inappropriately to any chemical change of this nature, whether or not soap is formed. Nowadays in industry fats are very often converted into glycerin and fatty acids -- that is, hydrolyzed -- without the formation of any soap whatever. A soap is merely the combination of a fatty acid with a metal, i.e., it is a salt. The commonest soaps are the fatty-acid salts of sodium (sodium is a soft, white metal obtained from common salt, sodium chloride) and potassium. (Potassium is also a soft, white metal obtained from wood ashes or from certain minerals found in Germany, Alsace, and elsewhere. Both sodium and potassium oxidize with great rapidity when exposed to the air, and hence are never found in nature except in the form of their compounds.) Hard soaps are sodium salts; soft soaps, potassium salts. The fatty-acid salts of ammonium are also sometimes used for cleansing. Only a few other soaps are of practical importance, for example lead soaps which are used in medicinal plasters, zinc soaps which are used in ointments, and aluminum soaps which are used in waterproofing. Very few of the salts of fatty acids have the properties of common soap. Most of them are but slightly soluble in water, and therefore do not yield suds and have little or no detergent (i.e., cleansing) action. All are nevertheless termed soaps by chemists.