1.
Pre lab assignment questions: 1) Where do you find alpha amylase in your body? What is the
substrate for amylase? 2) If you digest the starch with amylase what did it produces? 3) In this
experiment, how would you monitor the starch digestion by amylase for different time intervals?
4) In this experiment, how would you monitor the glucose production by amylase from Starch
for different time intervals? 5) What are the physical conditions needed for an optimum activity
of an enzyme? 6) How enzymes speed up the reactions?
Solution
Ans 1: Amylase is found in human saliva. The substrate for amylase is amylose and
amylopectin found in starch.
Ans 2: Amylase hydrolyses the starch to disaccharides and trisaccharides ans finally to glucose.
Ans 3: Hydrolysis of srtarch produces amylose which gives blue color with iodine solution. As
starch is being digested the blue color intensifies due to increased hydrolysis of starch to give
more amylose. The absorbance at regular interval can predict the overall digestion as absorbance
increases with digestion.