Aim

To study the digestion of Starch by salivary amylase and effect of temperature and pH on it.

Objective

The main objective of this chemistry project report is "To study the digestion of starch by
salivary amylase and effect of temperature and pH on it"
 To study the digestion of starch by saliva.
 To study the effect of temperature on the digestion of starch by saliva.
 To study the effect of pH on the salivary digestion of starch.

Introduction

Every health book insists on the chewing of food. The act of chewing stimulates the
excretion of saliva. Saliva mixes up with the food and helps its digestion.
That is, the enzyme ptyalin or amylase present in human saliva hydrolyzes the big molecules
of food into many molecules.
For example, starch into mono-sacenaricies maltose and glucose; proteins into amino acids
and fats into fatty acids and glycerol.Thus saliva not only helps in digestion of food but also convert
into energy generating substances. Further, enzyme and their activity are very sensitive to
temperature and pH.
Even a slight variation in these two factors, can disturb the action of enzymes. In other
words, digestion of food by salivary amylase is also effected by temperature and pH and can be
verified experimentally.
For example, hydrolysis of starch can be verified by testing it with iodine solution. Starch
forms blue coloured complex with iodine. If no starch is present in a system it will not give blue
colour with iodine.

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Apparatus required

The requirements for experiment of chemistry project report are as follow:

1. Test tubes
2. Test tube stand
3. One dropper
4. Beaker
5. Stop watch
6. Starch
7. lodine solution
8. Thermometer
9. Dilute HCl solution
10. Dilute NaOH solution

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 Experiment 1

Aim

To study the digestion of starch by saliva

Procedure
 Collection of Saliva.- Rinse mouth thoroughly with cold water and ensure that it does not
contain any foparticles. Now take about 250ml of lukewarm water in the mouth and keep for
about three minutes so that saliva mixes up well with it. Spit this into a beaker. Filter, if there
is any suspended impurity, clear filtrate is saliva solution and contains enzyme ptyalin.
 Preparation of starch solution.- Take about 0.5g of starch in a 100 ml beaker and add enough
water to make a paste.
 Dilute the paste by adding 50 ml water and boil for about 5 minutes.
 Digestion of starch.-
 Take 5ml of the starch solution in a test tube. Add 2 ml of saliva solution into it. Mix
the solution well by shaking the tube carefully and start a step watch.
 After one minute, take out two drops of the mixture solution from the test tube with
the help of a dropper and transfer it into another test tube containing about 1 ml of 1%
iodine solution. Note color produced, if any.
 Repeat this test after every one minute taking two drops of the mixture solution and
fresh 1% iodine solution continue until the test shows no color.
 Record the time and blue color intensity.
Observation

Time Passed after Mixing 1 minute 2 minute 3 minute 4 minute

Color Intensity Deep Blue Blue Light Blue No Blue

Absence of blue color on addition to iodine solution means absence of starch in the mixture
solution. That is whole of the starch has got digested or hydrolysed.
Conclusion
Starch gets hydrolysed by salivary amylase

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 Experiment 2
Aim
To study the effect of temperature on the digestion of starch by saliva.
Procedure
 Take three test tubes and label these 1,2, and 3.
 Take 5ml of the starch solution, 2ml of the saliva solution and 5 ml of water in each test
tube. And shake the test tubes carefully.
 Place test tube number 1 in water at room temperature, test tube number 2 in a beaker
containing water at 50°C and test tube number 3 in boiling water.
 After 5 minutes, observe the color change on mixing two drops of the mixture of every tube
with one ml of 1%iodine solution.
 Note the intensity of blue coloured form.
Observation

Time passed after

mixing saliva solution Test tube 1 at room Test tube 3 in
Test tube 2 at 50°C
with starch solution temperature boiling water
(mins)

5 Light Blue Blue Deep Blue

6 No Blue color Light Blue Blue

7 – Faint Blue Blue

8 – No Blue color Blue

9 – Blue

10 – Blue

Conclusion
Temperature affects the digestion of starch by saliva

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 Experiment 3
Aim
To study the effect of pH on the salivary digestion of starch.

Procedure

 Take three test tubes and label these 1,2, and 3.

 Add 5 ml of the starch solution, 2 ml of the saliva solution in each test tube.
 Now as 2 ml of water in test tube number 1 2 ml of Dilute HCl in test tube number 2 and
2 ml of Dilute NaOH solution in test tube number 3 and shake carefully.
 Keep the three test tubes in water at room temperature for about 10 minutes.
 Add 2 drops of the solution of each test tube with 1%iodine solution and observe the color
change

Observation

Colour produced (in test tube) with

Test tube Solution Taken
1 iodine solution

1 Starch + saliva + water No Blue color

2 Starch + saliva +dil. HCl Blue color

3 Starch + saliva + dil. NaOH Blue color

Conclusion

Hydrolysis of starch by the enzyme does not take place in the acidic or alkaline medium

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 Precautions

 All apparatus should be clean and washed properly.

 Add equal drops of iodine in all the samples when testing for starch.
 Temperature variation affects enzyme activity, so take the readings at a constant temperature
for all thesamples.
 Delay in sampling or the reaction time may affect the result. So, iodine drops must be added
at fixed intervals in all samples

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 Bibliography

 Wikipedia-the free encyclopedia2.

 http://www.google.com/ 3.

 http://en.wikipedia.org 4.

 www.icbse.com 5.

 Chemistry NCERT Class XII th