Got Protein?

Overview

Objectives/Goals To measure the amount of protein in commercial milk products:cow, goat, soy, almond, rice, and coconut. Methods/Materials Preparation and analysis: 1. If necessary, dilute each milk product with a volumetric flask (i.e. 1:100) 2. Transfer 100 ul each milk product or its dilution into labeled tubes 3. Prepare a #0# test tube or blank (only buffer) used as a reference to zero the Spec 20 at 595nm. 4. Add 6.0 mL of Coomassie Brilliant Blue reagent into each test tube (n=3). 5. After Bradford reagent added, wait 5 min and read absorbance. 6. Calculate mean ± SD (n=3) of absorbance values for each milk product and record them in data table. 7. Use equation from standard curve to determine protein in grams. Materials: 1. 8 milk products (four plant and four animal); 2. Coomassie Brilliant Blue G 250 dye; 3. BSA (Bovine Serum Albumin); 4. Spectrophotometer 20; 5. cuvettes or test tubes (for Spec 20); 6. micropipettors and tips; 7. vortex mixer; 8. test tubes (for milk dilutions); 9. test tube rack; 10. 1 standard timer; 11. Permanent Lab Markers; 12. Lab book (i.e. Composition book); 13. 0.1 M KH2 PO4 (Potassium Dihydrogen Phosphate); 14. 0.1 M NaOH (sodium hydroxide); 15. volumetric flasks (i.e. 10mL, 100 mL, and 1L); 16.deionized water. Results Chocolate and skim milk,from cows, had similar measured protein content 5.4 vs 6.3g protein/8oz. Of 3 plant-derived milk products, only soy had a measured protein content similar to animals. Other plant derived products had negligible protein content Conclusions/Discussion The general trend of results was: experimentally determined values were lower than values found on assorted product labels; 0.2 g/8 oz serving,and 1.0 g/8 oz respectively.The 83% between these values represents the percent that my values differed from the label. Conclusion: The results support my hypothesis; bovine milk has similar protein content as other animal derived milk products. Of the 3 plant-derived milk products tested, only soy had a measured protein content similar to animals. Other plant derived products (rice and coconut) had negligible protein content. Plant derived milks don't contain a complete protein and #can't be used as infant formula# because they won't support health and normal growth.

Competition history

• CSEF 2012 Biochemistry/ Molecular Biology · Entry S0526

Resources

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