ANALYSIS OF MENTHOL EXTRACTED FROM MINT LEAVES USING VCD AND COMPUTATION GENERATED SPECTRA

Recently, the terpene class of molecules have been under much interest due to their potential medicinal properties. Terpenes such as cannabidiol and tetrahydrocannabinol have been studied for their psychological effects, while others like myrcene are of interest due to their antifungal and antibacterial properties. However, some of these terpenes possess different properties dependent on their stereochemistry, potentially with one enantiomer having the desired the effect and the other having a reduced or even harmful effect in some cases. Despite the importance of stereochemistry in medicine, techniques that are sensitive to it are still uncommon, but one technique in the form of VCD/IR spectroscopy has been under interest due to its ability to effectively analyze small molecules with limited flexibility, such as many terpenes. This thesis will cover the use of VCD/IR spectroscopy in the analysis of menthol from Mentha piperita, specifically the stereochemistry based on a known pure sample, and through calculated spectra.