If there is one thing that I could say describes the
holiday season best, it would have to be the delicious
treats I get to indulge in, such as: gingerbread cookies,
pies, peppermint bark, and so many more. Wafting in the
aroma of baked goods always gives me butterflies in my
stomach and lights up my nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
mind.
This Christmas season, I would like to present you with
some 1H NMR analysis of some spices that have traditionally
defined the season for many people. These spices are nutmeg,
ginger, allspice, and cloves. Is it possible that these all
have something in common, which could contribute to their
associations with the smells and tastes of Christmas? Shown
in Figure 1 is a stacked plot of 1H spectra of these four
spices (a) along with the 1H spectrum of pure eugenol (b).
As you can tell, all these spices have a common singlet
at 3.88 ppm, which represents the significant eugenol
content in all these spices.