Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I have to submit research soon and I am making a sports drink for my science fair project I want to measure the amount of antioxidants in the sports drink I created vs Gatorade. We aren't allowed to do laboratory testings so how do I do a homemade antioxidant test?

Please respond quickly if thats possible.
Thanks!!

Moderator note: I've combined your two posts ... and removed the second post. That way, the experts on this forum will see that your post needs a response! And, thank you for being patient ... the experts are volunteers so please don't expect an immediate response. Thanks and good luck with your projects!

Madeline

Hi! This sounds like a super cool experiment!

If you haven't already, I would recommend reading Science Buddies' page about antioxidants, which I have linked here: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... tioxidants
As mentioned in the abstract, a simple way to test for antioxidant activity is through observation of whether or not the tested material can stop an apple from turning brown. Liquids with more antioxidants will be more effective at slowing this process. For your experiment, you can test both your drink and gatorade with apples. Then, observe the differences in the apples' coloring. Whichever drink is most effective at keeping the apple from turning brown most likely contains more antioxidants.

Hopefully this is help, but please let us know if you have any other questions!
Good luck with your experiment,
Chloe