The Analysis on Lipids

Objectives

1. To detect the presence of lipids in food samples.

2. To successfully extract lipids from food samples

Introduction

Lipid is a substance that is soluble in non-polar solvents and only sparingly soluble in water.
It is made up of a group of molecules like fats, waxes, steroids, phospholipids and fat-soluble
vitamins. For this particular experiment, we are going to test for the presence of lipid and the
extraction of the lipids from the food itself.

For testing the presence of lipid, Sudan stain will be used as it a synthetic organic compounds
that are used as dyes to stain sudanophilic biological samples and in this case, lipids. It is not
soluble in water but it is very much soluble in lipids, which causes it to stain the lipids to
prove that lipids are present in the colour of reddish-orange.

As for extracting lipid, food examples that contained lipids were used. Petroleum ether is also
used due to it being non-polar which will make it yield a greater amount of extract than, for
say diethyl ether. Petroleum ether is used for this experiment due to its low cost compared to
other organic solvents. Not just that, it is also less hygroscopic than diethyl ether, less
flammable than diethyl ether and more selective for hydrophobic lipids than diethyl ether.
This is why this solvent is able to easily penetrate the sample to provide a complete lipid
extraction.

Materials and Apparatus

Chocolate chips, potato chips, sunflower seeds, sudan indicator, petroleum ether, ethanol,
deionised water, test tube, measuring cylinder, dropper, spatula, beaker, weighing scale and
hot plate

Procedures

(a) Test for lipids – Sudan Stain Test

1. Biscuits were grinded and measured out about 2 g and 2 ml of water was added to it in
the test tube.
2. 3 drops of Sudan indicator was added to the test and tube and was shaken several
times.
3. Stained molecules were present and visible.
(b) Extraction of lipids from foods
 1. 2 grams of potato chips were weighed out and the weight was recorded in the table
below.
2. The potato chips were crushed into small pieces using mortar and pestle.
3. An empty beaker was weighed with a glass rod inside and was recorded.
4. The crushed food was placed in the above beaker.
5. The beaker was weighed containing the crushed food and was also recorded in the
table below.
6. 10 ml of petroleum ether was added to the flask containing the crushed potato chips. It
was then stir for 5 minutes using a glass rod to get the lipids to dissolve in the
petroleum ether.
7. Petroleum ether was carefully decanted from the beaker.
8. The beaker containing the solid food was placed on a hot plate to evaporate all of the
petroleum ether.
9. When it was all evaporated, the beaker was removed from the hot plate and allowed to
cool.
10. After the beaker has cooled to room temperature, the beaker and remaining food was
weighed and recorded.
11. The mass of lipid extracted was calculated in the results below.

Results

(a) Test for lipids – Sudan Stain Test

Test tube filled with crushed biscuits filled with water and added Sudan indicator
(b) Extraction of lipids from foods

Beaker containing solid food

Beaker with evaporated petroleum ether

 Foods Weight Weight Weight of Weight Weight lost % lipid extraction
of of crushed raw if from food
empty crushed food beaker (weight of
beaker raw with lipid
(with food dried extracted)
glass (with food
rod) glass (with
rod) glass
rod)
Chocolate 49.125 51.253 51.253- 51.096 51.253- 0.157/2.134X100=
chips 49.125= 51.096=0.157 7.4%
2.134
Potato 63.945 65.903 65.903- 65.490 65.903- 0.413/1.958X100=
chips 63.945=1.958 65.490=0.413 21%
Sunflower 68.606 71.016 71.016- 69.993 71.016- 1.023/2.470X100=
seeds 68.606=2.470 69.993=1.023 41%

Discussion

(a) Test for lipids – Sudan Stain Test

The small red ring on the upper surface of the solution in the tube is the proof that lipid is
present in the solution, thus proving that lipid is contained within the biscuit.

(b) Extraction of lipids from foods

Looking from the table above, We can see that sunflower seeds has the highest percentage of
lipids extracted from it. Other than that, the percentage of lipids extracted from potato chips
is higher than the ones in chocolate chips. While there might be some errors due to
carelessness, however the ranking of them is in no way wrong once one looks at the
information from their respective wrappings.

Let’s look at them one by one, starting with the chocolate cookies. This is because the
extracted oil from the chocolate cookies had coarse texture, a solid viscosity and has a change
in order. This tells us that the chocolate cookies has unsaturated fatty acids.

Next is potato chips. From the looks of it, the extracted oil from it has a smooth texture, a
medium viscosity and has no change in odour or smell, neither is the colour so that means the
oil is an unsaturated fatty acid as well.

Lastly, the extracted oil from the sunflower seeds contain a smooth texture with a solid
viscosity. It also has no change in colour, however, it does have an odour so the sunflower
seeds contain both unsaturated and saturated fats.
Conclusion

According to the results, whenever Sudan indicator is used, a red ring will appear above the
solution which indicates the presence of starch. Thus, it is proven that lipids are indeed
present in within the food samples and the Sudan Stain Test is a very solid way of finding out.

Also, the extraction of lipids from the food samples were successfully, with each one having
different percentage extracted depending on the sample. The highest percentage of lipid
extracted was sunflower seeds and the lowest being chocolate chips. It is also discovered that
both chocolate chips and potato chips contain unsaturated fats. On the other hand, it is
presumed that sunflower seeds have both unsaturated fats and saturated fats judging from the
results.

References

1. McNaught, A. D. and Wilkinson, A., ed. (1997). "lipids". Compedium of Chemical

Terminology (the “Gold Book”) (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.
2. Moreau, Robert A. 2005. Extraction and Analysis of Food Lipids. Chapter 5 in Methods
of Analysis of Food Components and Additives. Chemical and Functional Properties of
Food Components series. Semih Otles, editor. Published by CRC Press, Taylor and
Francis Group, Boca Raton, FL. USA.