Stomach Acid Simulation with Enzymes/Digestion
Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2018 10:59 am
Hello,
My son is in 5th grade and working on his science project. He is trying to create a new material to replace single-use petroleum based plastic bags that can be digested by sea turtles.
Part of his experiment is testing the digestibility of the new material in a simulated sea turtle stomach. He spoke with a sea turtle scientist and found out that the stomach acid and enzymes in turtles is comparable to that of humans.
He does not have a science lab at his school so we are working with him at home to set this up. After much research we believe that the below is an accurate representation of the stomach acid mixture.:
A 'batch' of stomach acid would include the following:
Base
1000 mL of .15M HCL
5 g of table salt
5 g of potassium chloride
Enzymes (Just sort of guessing on amounts here)
Proteases - 30 mL pineapple juice per liter of stomach acid
Lipase - 30 mL of a 5% solution per liter of stomach acid
Amylase - 30 mL of a 60% solution per liter of stomach acid (the description says 'This solution contains 60 weight % amylase' which I assume to mean 60%
Nucleases - couldn't find a source for these.
He’s going to use two 2,000 mL glass beakers for the stomach and fill them with above solution. We’re going to stir the solutions 2-3 times an hour for 2 minutes during the day (they will not be stirred in the night). He’s planning to put a heating pad under the beakers to heat the solutions. This will be set up in our garage. I was thinking we’d open the garage door during the day for ventilation but it’s getting cold here so that could mess up the temperature of the solution.
He is thinking that he’ll run this test for 1 week because he learned that if the material doesn’t digest in a sea turtle’s stomach within a week it will start to have health problems.
We wanted to know if you feel that the above stomach acid and enzyme formula (contents and ratios of each) will accurately simulate the stomach and digestion. And will the heat and stirring plan suffice? Also, any advice on safety precautions we all need to take during this process would be greatly appreciated. My son has done some research on this but we want to double check.
Thanks so much for your help!
Lori
My son is in 5th grade and working on his science project. He is trying to create a new material to replace single-use petroleum based plastic bags that can be digested by sea turtles.
Part of his experiment is testing the digestibility of the new material in a simulated sea turtle stomach. He spoke with a sea turtle scientist and found out that the stomach acid and enzymes in turtles is comparable to that of humans.
He does not have a science lab at his school so we are working with him at home to set this up. After much research we believe that the below is an accurate representation of the stomach acid mixture.:
A 'batch' of stomach acid would include the following:
Base
1000 mL of .15M HCL
5 g of table salt
5 g of potassium chloride
Enzymes (Just sort of guessing on amounts here)
Proteases - 30 mL pineapple juice per liter of stomach acid
Lipase - 30 mL of a 5% solution per liter of stomach acid
Amylase - 30 mL of a 60% solution per liter of stomach acid (the description says 'This solution contains 60 weight % amylase' which I assume to mean 60%
Nucleases - couldn't find a source for these.
He’s going to use two 2,000 mL glass beakers for the stomach and fill them with above solution. We’re going to stir the solutions 2-3 times an hour for 2 minutes during the day (they will not be stirred in the night). He’s planning to put a heating pad under the beakers to heat the solutions. This will be set up in our garage. I was thinking we’d open the garage door during the day for ventilation but it’s getting cold here so that could mess up the temperature of the solution.
He is thinking that he’ll run this test for 1 week because he learned that if the material doesn’t digest in a sea turtle’s stomach within a week it will start to have health problems.
We wanted to know if you feel that the above stomach acid and enzyme formula (contents and ratios of each) will accurately simulate the stomach and digestion. And will the heat and stirring plan suffice? Also, any advice on safety precautions we all need to take during this process would be greatly appreciated. My son has done some research on this but we want to double check.
Thanks so much for your help!
Lori