EXECISE 2

BIOMOLECULES

I. OBEJECTIVES : To study the properties of carbohydrates and lipids

II. MATERIALS :
Glucose, vegetable oil, sugar, Benedict’s reagent, starch, iodine, alcohol lamp, 3 test
tubes, graduated cylinder

III. PROCEDURE
1. Heat strongly a pinch of sugar (sucrose) in a test tube. Observe what happens.
What causes the sugar become black when strongly heated?

The features of the sugar upon heating it depends on how hot we heat it and how
quickly. When we placed the sugar above the alcohol lamp, it slowly turns into liquid
and then it turns into caramel, which is actually slightly burned sugar. After a couple
of minutes it turns into a black solid. The solid is carbon. . When Sugar is heated,
some of the water is driven off leaving extra carbon atoms laying around. There is a
chemical change. One substance that remains as a result of the chemical change is
ash. Ash is pure carbon.

2. To 5ml of glucose solution in a test tube add 5ml of Benedict’s reagent. Heat
over the alcohol lamp for 5 minutes, until a color change is observed. This is a
positive result for Benedict’s test.

We arrived at a brick red color after heating the mixture of glucose solution and the
Benedict’s reagent. The arrival of the brick red color means that the percentage of
sugar in the glucose solution is 2.0 as stated in the table found in part IV of this
paper. It is expected that the test for sugar content for glucose will get the level since
glucose is a simple sugar.

3. Give a small square piece of paper. On one side of the paper add a drop of
vegetable oil. On another side add a drop of alcohol. Note which drop leaves a
translucent spot after 10 minutes.

When the alcohol is dropped onto a piece of paper it will leave a translucent spot. If
seen under the microscope, the paper fibers contain compartments, surrounded by
walls. These are the remains of the cells from the trees from which paper is made.
When the alcohol is placed on the paper, it enters these compartments and they swell
up. . This means that light can pass through the paper more easily, so we can see a
translucent spot where the alcohol is. After a couple of minutes, the alcohol
evaporates, then the spot will dry up, the paper fibers shrink and the spot will
disappear.
 When we add a drop of vegetable oil onto the same piece of paper, we will
also see a translucent spot. After a couple of minutes, when the alcohol
evaporates and the spot it created disappears, the spot created by the vegetable
oil still remains. This is because the oil evaporates more slowly than alcohol
because the forces that hold the oil molecules together are stronger than those
in alcohol molecules. So the spot remains.

4. Put 5ml of starch mixture in a test tube. Then add a drop of iodine. Describe the
color formed with iodine. This is a positive iodine test for starch.

The mixture turn into a dark shade of purple.

IV. QUESTIONS
1. If a diabetic urine is tested with Benedict’s reagent, what is the positive result if
sugar is present in the urine?

The following result is used to estimate the percentage of sugar in the blood when a
Benedict’s reagent is dropped in a diabetic urine.

Color Obtained Percentage of sugar in the blood

Blue Nil
Clear Green 0.1
Turbid Green 0.3
Green and Yellow( Precipitate formation) 0.5 to 1.0
Yellow 1.0
Orange 2.0
Brick Red More than 2.0

2. What are sugars? Give examples

Sugars are carbohydrates, which serve as the main energy source for the body. There
are many types of sugars. They occur both naturally and as ingredients in many
foods. The most familiar sugar is sucrose. It is made of two simple sugars, fructose
and glucose. Fruits and vegetables naturally contain fructose and glucose. Other
sugars used in foods include invert sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup,
honey, lactose (milk sugar) and other syrups. During digestion, all of these sugars
except lactose break down into fructose and glucose. Lactose breaks down into
glucose and galactose.

3. What are starches? Give examples

Starch or amylum is a carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units

joined together by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by all
green plants as an energy store. It is the most important carbohydrate in the human
diet and is contained in such staple foods such as potatoes, wheat, maize (corn), rice,
 and cassava. Widely used prepared foods containing starch
are bread, pancakes, cereals,noodles, pasta, porridge and tortilla.

4. What are the building blocks of fats and oils?

Fats and oils are a source of energy. They also aid in making both natural and
prepared foods more palatable by improving the texture and providing a more
desirable flavor. Fatty acids are the building blocks of fats and oil in the body and in
food, are a source of energy as well as constituents of cellular membranes.

5. What are the source of fats and oils?

Common fat-containing foods

Different foods contain different ratios of fatty acids:

 Saturated fats – sources include fatty cuts of meat, full fat milk, cheese,
butter, cream, most commercially baked products such as biscuits and
pastries, most deep-fried fast foods, coconut and palm oil.
 Mono-unsaturated fats – sources include margarine spreads such as canola
or olive oil based choices, oils such as olive, canola and peanut oils, avocado,
and nuts such as peanuts, hazelnuts, cashews and almonds.
 Polyunsaturated fats – sources include fish, seafood, polyunsaturated
margarines, vegetable oils such as safflower, sunflower, corn or soy oils, nuts
such as walnuts and brazil nuts, and seeds.

Sources of omega-6 and omega-3 fats

Polyunsaturated fats can be divided into two categories:

 Omega-3 fats are found in both plant and marine foods, although it is the
omega-3 fats from marine sources that have the strongest evidence for health
benefits (including reducing the risk of heart disease). Plant food sources
include canola and soy oils and canola-based margarines. Marine sources
include fish, especially oily fish such as Atlantic salmon, mackerel, Southern
blue fin tuna, trevally and sardines.
 Omega-6 fats are found primarily in nuts, seeds and plant oils such as corn,
soy and safflower.

6. Cite some differences between fats and oils

Fats are usually solid at room tempeture and oils are not this is because the fatty acids in
fats are saturated where as the fatty acids in oils are unsaturated. Fat is made within the
body tissues of recently living animals, whereas oil is either pressed from plants, as in
Olive oil, Corn oil, Peanut oil, Corn oil or Safflower oil (whatever that is), or pumped
from the ground as Fossil fuels. Fat is a group of substance that forms part of the food
that we eat. Other ingredients of food include substances like protein, starch and
vitamins. Fat is also a substance that is produced and stored in the body. There are many
different kinds of fats. These can be in liquid or solids. All fats belong to the chemical
group of fatty acids.

Oil is a more general name. Oil is always a liquid, and it is generally viscous. Many types
of oils are fatty acids of plant or animal origin. But there are many different oils that are
neither viscous nor fatty acids. For example, all liquid petroleum products such as diesel
are also called oil.