A&P II
Amylase Test
Name:_____________________________
Materials:
Puffin® Starch packing material
Benedicts Reagent (also called Benedict's solution or Benedict's test) is a reagent named after an
American chemist, Stanley Rossiter Benedict. It is used as a test for the presence of
reducing sugars such as glucose, fructose and maltose.
Glucose
5- 20 ml Test tubes
5- 50 ml beakers
1- 400 ml Beaker
1- 5 ml pipette with pump
Hot plate
Procedure:
Place one Puffin® into a small beaker, and label it #1
Add 20 ml dH2O, mash and stir until dissolved
Place one Puffin® in beaker #2 and liberally bathe it is your saliva, i.e. Spit on it with much
watery saliva. (No Lugies please!)
Bring the volume up to 20 ml with d H2O and stir /mash until dissolved.
Place 20 ml of d H2O in a small beaker, #3. Add 0.5 g of Glucose to the third beaker, and
stir/mash until dissolved. (Gentle heat may be helpful for dissolving the glucose.)
Obtain and Label with a Sharpie® pen (A through E) 5 empty test tubes (label near the top of the
tubes)
A- Positive control
B- Negative control
C- Saliva + Puffin
D- Puffin without saliva
E- Saliva only
Place 5 ml of Benedict’s reagent in each test tube
Add the following to above labeled test tubes containing the Benedict’s reagent
A- 5 ml from the glucose beaker
B- 5 ml of d H2O
Filter with cheese cloth
C- 5 ml of solution from the Puffin/Saliva beaker
if necessary.
D- 5 ml of the solution from the Puffin/ d H2O beaker
E- 5 ml of the solution from the Saliva only beaker
Place the 5 test tubes into a 400 ml beaker containing 200 ml tap water.
Bring the tap water to a boil.
Watch that boiling water does not remove your labels
Gently boil for 5 minutes
Let the tubes cool and examine for precipitate (Solids that fall out of solution)
Record your results for each test tube: any precipitate formed is recorded as a positive result for
the presence of reducing sugars in the food. Sucrose (household sugar) is a non-reducing sugar
and thus does not react with Benedict's reagent.
Describe any changes observed for each test tube during the boiling process.
Tube
Color Changes
+ / - for Glucose
A
B
C
D
E
A&P II
Amylase Test
Name:_____________________________
The presence of glucose is indicated by:
Why is there more glucose present in the Saliva/Puffin mix than in the water/Puffin mix?
Chemically explain where this glucose came from?
Why did the Puffin and water only, not show much if any glucose?
What is the purpose for doing a positive control (Tube A)?
What is the purpose for doing a negative control (Tube B)?
What is the purpose for doing the saliva only (Tube E)?