Why ethyl alcohol is a poor extraction solvent?
Ethyl alcohol is a compromise solvent. It dissolves water and oil compounds both, but doesn’t do either very well. The polar side of the ethyl molecule is attracted to water (which is the OH- group on the ethyl molecule) but has no affinity for oil compounds. The non-polar side of the ethyl alcohol is attracted to oil compounds but has no affinity for water. So to dissolve an oil compound you need a pure non-polar compound, such as hexane, which has no attraction to water and uses all of its solvating power to dissolve oil compounds. Likewise use water to dissolve sugar or salt.
