Digestion Lab Report

Bio – 171;

Lab Report- Digestion

Introduction:

The digestive tract is a long tube that runs from the oral cavity down to the anus and is open at both ends. The salivary glands are an accessory organ of the digestive tract that is found in the mouth. The salivary glands are stimulated by food being in the mouth and the chewing of the food. When the salivary glands are stimulated they then secrete saliva which contains water, mucus, a bicarbonate buffer, and two enzymes called salivary amylase and lingual lipase. These two enzymes are what start the digestive process in the mouth. (Anatomy and Physiology 2014)

Digestion is the process of chemical processing. Digestion is needed in order to break down the macromolecules that are in the foods we eat in order for them to be absorbed. They must be broken down both mechanically and chemically in order to be absorbed. Within the water, minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins that is in the foods we eat, the three major ones that contains the majority of our energy source and synthesis capabilities are carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins. These individual macromolecules all require their own specific enzyme to digest them. Three general categories of digestive enzymes are amylase- which digests carbohydrate, lipase- which digests lipid, and protease which digests protein.

In this lab, both a carbohydrate and a lipid were digested by using their specific enzymes amylase and lipase. Emulsification is also performed during this lab because it is a process in which large fat droplets are reduced in their size to smaller fat droplets in order for them to become more soluble in the digestive juices. By the fat droplets becoming more soluble it makes them more subject to be attacked by the lipase enzyme.

Materials and methods:

Digestion of carbohydrate:

The materials needed for the digestion of the carbohydrate include: five test tubes, a test tube rack, four different pipettes, a wax pencil,...