Possable to make Menthol crystals?

[vividdemise]

So I have been looking into making Menthol crystals. From what I have found so far if you freeze peppermint oil Crystals will form. I'm trying a small amount as test but I don't think i can get it to 22 C the "[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]by the aid of a freezing mixture" is off putting. dose not say if it needs to be slow or if a flash freeze is required. any info or ideas?[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Production[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Menthol crystals are naturally produced through Mint (Mentha arvensis) essential oil extraction. Menthol is the solid constituent of oil of mint, to which its characteristic odor is due, and was formerly known as peppermint camphor. Menthol is obtained by subjecting the distilled oil of Mentha arvensis oil to a temperature of -22° C, (-7.6° F.) by the aid of a freezing mixture, the menthol crystallizes out in satiny crystals and the mother liquor is removed while the low temperature is maintained. They dissolve readily into alcohol or essential oils, and they can also be dissolved into water or oil at their melting point of 111.2 deg. F [/FONT]

 

[Hoosier]

Well, PG would work as the freezing mixture.

I do not have any equipment that could make that low of a temp, nor cultivated a source of inexpensive distilled mint oil, so have no reason to try it.

That and a few bucks for the 1 oz bag of menthol I did buy has lasted me over a year.

 

[Dark Jester]

An easy 'freezing mixture' can be made by taking a bowl of isoprophyl alcohol, and dropping a lot of dry ice into it. Since alcohol doesn't freeze, the dry ice will continue to drop it's temperature well below 0 degrees. Then just take whatever container has the mint oil and stick the bottom of that in the bowl, kindof like a double boiler.

It won't be quite as cold as liquid nitrogen, but it can still flash freeze fingers and such so extreme care should be taken. We used to play with this a lot when I was a kid.

Seems like a lot of work though for something that is already available premade for relatively cheap.