3.

Results
3.1. Physical Digestion of Macromolecules Condition Salivation

4. Discussion
Mastication is the chewing or grinding of food into bolus which involves the teeth, tongue and most importantly, the three salivary glands. Saliva is essential in physical digestion as it kills the bacteria in the food thus keeping the mouth clean and breaking down food into simple carbohydrates for easier digestion further onwards. Though salivation can be considered an involuntary process, increased activity can be instigated by the autonomic nervous system. It is often stimulated by the entry of food or irritants into the mouth and thoughts of or smell of food. This explains the increased activity of the salivary glands when the subject smelled and consumed her food. An enzyme in saliva called amylase is the primary component in cleaving starch. The presence of starch can be determined by subjecting a sample to Lugols Iodine Test. This solution is comprised of potassium iodide and elemental iodine in distilled water. If starch has been digested, the sample turns dark blue and black. In the results obtained, only the set-up with amylase turned amber signifying the absence of starch because it was the set-up that simulated the most ideal environment for cleaving starch. The set-up with only water is evidently incapable of any form of digestion thus the starch remained intact. The last two set-ups, however, were tests for the potential denaturation of amylase because this occurrence have temperature and pH as triggering factors. Amylases optimum pH or the pH at which it is most functional is around 7 meaning it thrives in practically neutral conditions. Now, having been subjected as demonstrated in C3 to an acidic environment causes it to denature thus changing its shape. Applying the lock-and-key theory, the substrate molecule cannot fit into the newly denatured active site because their shapes are not complementary anymore. Starch cannot be accommodated by the new structure of amylase, leaving it undigested. The same can be essentially said for temperature. High temperatures usually ranging above 100C cause amylase to denature because of the increase in the molecules kinetic energy. The molecules become more excited in colliding into each other damaging and remodelling the enzymes previous structure. This explains the 37C water bath that the set-ups must be immersed in after because it is the optimum temperature for digestion.

Upon seeing food With salivation Upon smelling food Increased salivation Upon eating Increased salivation Table 1. Occurrence of salivation upon certain conditions 3.2. Chemical Digestion of Carbohydrates 3.2.1. Lugols Test Lugols Test C1 (water) + C2 (amylase) C3 (amylase + HCl) + C4 (amylase + heat) + Table 2. Test reactions to starch indicators Set-up Number 3.2.2. Benedicts Test Set-Up Number Benedicts Test C1 (water) ++ C2 (amylase) + and +++ C3 (amylase + HCl) + C4 (amylase + heat) + and ++ Table 3. Test reactions to maltose indicator 3.3. Chemical Digestion of Proteins Set-up Number Observation P1 (pepsin and water) + P2 (pepsin and HCl) +++ P3 (pepsin and HCl on ice) + P4 (water and HCl) P5 (pepsin and NaOH) Table 4. Observations to protein digestion 3.4. Chemical Digestion of Fats Set-up Number Average pH F1 (water) 6.5 F2 (pancreatin) 6.25 F3 (pancreatin + bile salts) 5.875 Table 5. Test solutions average pH within 1 hour at 20-minute intervals

The carbohydrates that were broken down by amylase are turned into maltose, a disaccharide. Benedicts solution tests for the presence of maltose in the previous set-ups. The presence of maltose can be interpreted from the colour that the set-ups will change into, with green indicating the least amount of maltose, yellow indicating moderate amounts, and orange or red indicating large amounts. For this test, the set-up with water showed moderate amounts of maltose signifying that breakdown of carbohydrates took place. Since the change into maltose is caused by hydrolysis and the set-up was incubated at optimum temperature for 30 minutes, it is possible that starch was cleaved through hydrolysis even without the aid of amylase. C2 naturally produced the highest amount of maltose because of its ideal conditions. However, the incubation period was not sufficient to enable the digestion of all carbohydrates present, hence the green layer. C3, on the other hand, reflected the least amount of maltose because starch was not processed in the first place due to unfavourable pH levels. As for C4, the exposure to boiling temperature was not long enough as to denature all of the amylase so there were still functioning proteins left when finally subjected to the optimum temperature. Protein digestion into peptides begins in the stomach but its bulk is performed in the small intestine. Parietal cells in the gastric glands of the stomach produce HCl which activates pepsinogen. Pepsinogen is the precursor of pepsin, an enzyme responsible for protein digestion. This enzyme has an optimum pH of 2 therefore the production of HCl and an optimum temperature of about 37C. All the set-ups were immersed in a 37C water bath after preparation. In set-up P1, though water is technically neutral in pH, it is considerably more basic than the conditions pepsin is most attuned to. That is why only minimal digestion occurred. P2, conversely, demonstrates the optimum environment for protein digestion therefore yielding the highest amount of digested proteins. In P3, pepsin was not exposed to its optimum temperature but low temperatures have been found to be not particularly damaging to the structure of the enzyme. It only slows its activity so pepsin was still able to perform digestion albeit minimal. Set-up P4 did not contain pepsin so obviously digestion cannot occur. NaOH in P5 is an extremely strong base, proving detrimental to the functional structure of pepsin. Since pepsin only thrives in extremely acidic surroundings, an extreme base would inevitably cause its denaturation. This will render it incapable of

starting digestion because of active site-substrate molecule incompatibilities. Fat digestion is perhaps the most difficult digestion to enact because of fats insolubility in water. Bile is produced by the liver and stored and concentrated in the gallbladder, from which it will be secreted as a response to the hormone cholecystokinin. This will act as an emulsifying agent. Lecithin in bile (which is amphipathic) forms micelles around microscopic droplets of fat through the hydrophobic tail fat interaction and hydrophilic head water interaction. This maximizes the lipid-water interaction and prevents the fat molecules from aggregating. Lipase found in pancreatin will then commence the digestion. The optimum pH for lipid digestion is around 6.5 to 9. Bile salts and water are products of neutralization reactions that occur in the liver. Since pancreatin was not added to F1, the set-up will have no source of lipase thus a reaction cannot occur. It will maintain a pH of 6.5, the lowest in the range of optimum pH level for lipid digestion. Theoretically, F2 should have become more basic with the presence of pancreatin, which normally thrives in basic environments. The same could be said for F3, which should have been the most basic due to the addition of bile salts which are essential neutralizers. REFERENCES [1] Hallare. Student Handbook in General Zoology Part 2. 2012 [2] Tolliver, K. (n.d.). What is Bile Salt? In eHow. Retrieved February 17, 2013 from http://www.ehow. com/about_5525802_bile-salt.html [3] What is Mastication. (n.d.). In wiseGEEK. Retrieved February 17, 2013 from www.wisegeek. com/what-is-mastication.htm [4] Bailey, R. (n.d.). Salivary Glands and Saliva. Retrieved February 17, 2013 from [5] Amylase Enzyme: The Effects of Temperature. (n.d.). In AllSands. Retrieved February 17, 2013 from http://www.allsands.com/science/science/amylaseenz ymeh_wpp_gn.htm [6] Bloom, C. (2011, October 11). Effect of temperature and pH on enzyme activity. In slideshare. Retrieved February 17, 2013 from http://www.slideshare.net/clairebloom/effect-oftemperature-and-ph-on-enzyme-activity