Macromolecules Lab 2
Blake Padgett
TA: Christine Hartman
9/4/2014
Fillers within Protein Supplements Local gym enthusiasts are trying to reveal if certain new dietary supplements will actually help them gain muscle mass by providing high levels of protein. Before the users consume the new supplements they want to know if they are indeed true protein supplements or if the manufacturer used fillers as a mean to make more profit.
“Do the new supplements contain fillers such as sugar and starch or are they pure protein?”
This is important because the consumers might be falsely informed on what they are actually putting into their body. We are trying to answer this because it will provide the consumers with accurate results of what contents are within these supplements. In our study we had four testing reagents (Lugol’s which tests for starch, Biuret tests for protien, Benedict’s that tests for reducing sugars, and Ninhydrin which detects amino acids) and four stock solutions at various concentrations (protein in the form of albumin, glucose for the sugars, amino acid through glycine and just basic starch). We tested each of these with our three unknowns (which were the three separate protein supplements). Mixing each individual supplements with all of our reagents and stock solutions, we tried to obtain a positive or negative reaction to decipher if the supplement was indeed protein positive. We also tested each supplement with a constant volume of H2O to have a standardized measurement to compare our data back to. In every mixture there was 5 ml of (stock solution/the three unknowns/our constant) separately mixed with 1 ml of each testing reagents. After running the experiments we can conclude that each of the three supplements do in fact contain some amounts of protein. Supplement number one tested positive for starch, protein, and sugars. This specific supplement contains the highest level of fillers as it presents us with sugar and starch
TA: Christine Hartman
9/4/2014
Fillers within Protein Supplements Local gym enthusiasts are trying to reveal if certain new dietary supplements will actually help them gain muscle mass by providing high levels of protein. Before the users consume the new supplements they want to know if they are indeed true protein supplements or if the manufacturer used fillers as a mean to make more profit.
“Do the new supplements contain fillers such as sugar and starch or are they pure protein?”
This is important because the consumers might be falsely informed on what they are actually putting into their body. We are trying to answer this because it will provide the consumers with accurate results of what contents are within these supplements. In our study we had four testing reagents (Lugol’s which tests for starch, Biuret tests for protien, Benedict’s that tests for reducing sugars, and Ninhydrin which detects amino acids) and four stock solutions at various concentrations (protein in the form of albumin, glucose for the sugars, amino acid through glycine and just basic starch). We tested each of these with our three unknowns (which were the three separate protein supplements). Mixing each individual supplements with all of our reagents and stock solutions, we tried to obtain a positive or negative reaction to decipher if the supplement was indeed protein positive. We also tested each supplement with a constant volume of H2O to have a standardized measurement to compare our data back to. In every mixture there was 5 ml of (stock solution/the three unknowns/our constant) separately mixed with 1 ml of each testing reagents. After running the experiments we can conclude that each of the three supplements do in fact contain some amounts of protein. Supplement number one tested positive for starch, protein, and sugars. This specific supplement contains the highest level of fillers as it presents us with sugar and starch