A
Soxhlet extractor is a piece of
laboratory apparatus invented in 1879 by
Franz von Soxhlet. It was originally designed for the extraction of a
lipid from a solid material. Typically, a Soxhlet extraction is used when the desired compound has a
limited solubility in a
solvent, and the impurity is
insoluble in that solvent. It allows for unmonitored and unmanaged operation while efficiently recycling a small amount of solvent to dissolve a larger amount of material.