Carbohydrates Essay, Research Paper

Carbohydrates are present in sugars, starch, acids, and in many other nutrients that consist elements of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Having a ratio of 1: 2: 1 or written as CH20. A monosaccharide meaning monomer of sugar is a “simple” carbohydrate. Containing backbone of five carbon atoms that are present in ribose and deoxyribose, components of RNA and DNA. Glucose a six carbon atom that is common cellulose, starch, and glycogen are classified as polysaccharide, Known as a “complex” carbohydrate, with straight or branched chains of many sugar monomers. These categories of carbohydrates are tested in two laboratory experiments. It will allow us (my partner and I) to detect the presence of sugar or starch. The first test, using two different solutions to expose the presence of sugar or starch by color alteration. I hypothesize that both samples of the experiment will result differently in order to pursue the next test. The second test consists of 9 food items, identifying the appearance of sugar or starch. I guess in identifying 75% out of the 9 items right. Conducting both experiments will test my hypotheses either right or wrong.

The first experiment on ??simple?? and ??complex?? carbohydrates, several tools and liquids were obtained: two test tubes, spot plate, test tube holder, benedicts reagent, lugol’s iodine, 10% karo syrup solution, 1% starch solution. In a test tube (holding it with a test tube holder,) my partner fills 1 cm from the bottom of 10% karo syrup solution. With the benedicts reagent I gently add four drops, then quickly placed the tube in 98 degrees of boiling water, at 3:17p.m. While waiting for 3 minutes, we noticed that before placing the tube in the boiling water, the benedict reagent in the 10% karo syrup was blue. After heating, we observed at 3:20 p.m. that the benedict solution activated and turned yellow. Which meant that sugar (simple carbohydrate) was present in the karo syrup. A different procedure was conducted to test starch. Using a spot plate, 1% of starch (about 4 drops) was placed into the well spot. Then two drops of lugol??s iodine was added. It generated a dark purple color with immediate contact with the iodine.

The results for this experiment meant that lugol??s iodine would test purple, positive for complex carbohydrate and yellow for simple carbohydrates. Both samples of the experiment resulted differently agreeing with my hypotheses. With the color alteration of benedict reagent and lugol??s iodine, my partner and I was ready to test sugar and starch on the 9 food items.

Know will test the 9 items, to state weather starch or sugar is present. I made a prediction that 75% of the items would be identified correctly. The experiment consist of: apple juice, potato juice, salt water, baking powder solution, baking soda solution, ozorka flavored water, powdered sugar solution, clearly Canadian flavored water, vinegar, benedicts reagent, lugol??s iodine, wax pencil, and 18 test tubes. My partner numbered the test tubes, having two sets from 1 through 9. He filled one set while I filled the other, both with food solution about, 1 cm from the bottom of the test tubes. After filling the tubes, we placed 5 drops of benedicts reagent on one set, then placing them in boiling water at about 98 degrees for five minutes (3:40 p.m.). Within the five minutes, I placed three drops of lugol??s iodine on the second set (3:42 p.m.). We shook the tubes, then resting them for 3 minutes. At 3:45 p.m., my partner took out the benedict set, and we started to record our result as we also recorded the lugol??s iodine.

We both had amazing outputs; I resulted on having 6 items accurately correct out of the 9. Baking soda solution and vinegar failed both the benedict and lugol??s iodine fluids, appearing negative results for sugar and starch. I predicted that Salt water would show starch therefore it appeared negative. Vinegar has an acidic elements, that are naturally fermented by which bacterium (prokaryotic) go through, an anaerobic cycle. Baking soda is a sodium bicarbonate, it is naturally occurring in the form of an ore called torna. It releases more OH , which it has a pH above 7. Salt is a sodium chloride, also with a pH number greater than 7. For these reasons, my estimation was not accurate. Some of the items were organic fluids, processed powders, and flavored water, which contain either starches or/and sugars.

The categories of carbohydrates were tested in two laboratory experiments. It allowed my partner and I to detect the presence of sugar and starch with indicators, (benedict??s reagent and lugol??s iodine). The test results indicated that certain Items were composed of carbon, containing substances that include lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids. Other items were composed of non- carbon such as water, calcium, sodium, magnesium, and other elements. For future experiments, this lab will help explain the cause and effect of any living structure.

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