Flintstones vs. Daily One:
No differences in compositional assay of sugars, cofactors, and
photosynthetic pigments
By “The Cloners”: Jill Allen, Ashley Anderson, Dan Nguyen, and Elizabeth Sanborn
Abstract (By Ashley Anderson, Revised by Dan Nguyen, Finished By
Jillian Allen)
We compared the nutritional value of Flintstones and Daily One Supplements and examined the carbohydrate composition, photosynthetic pigments, and enzyme cofactors of each. We hypothesized that although Flintstones have artificial flavoring, dyes, added sugars and a pediatrician recommendation; it is equally beneficial to use a generic brand of vitamins, such as Daily One Supplements.
First, we used five different tests to identify carbohydrate structures. We predicted that the Benedict’s test, which tested for reducing sugars and Iodine’s test, which tested for starch would both be positive. We also predicted that the Barfoed’s, Bial’s, and Selivanoff’s tests would be negative. We found that Daily One Supplements contained reducing sugars, hexose-pyranoses, and starch while Flintstones contained hexose-furanoses and both monosaccaride and disaccharide ketoses.
Next, we tested the vitamins for photosynthetic pigments via paper chromatography. We tested for carotene, xanthophylls, chlorophyll A and B, and others pigments such as dyes used in the vitamins. We predicted that the pigments for chlorophyll A would be the only indication of photosynthesis on the strips. We found that neither vitamin had any significant levels of photosynthetic pigments, except the Daily One Supplements had some evidence of carotene.
Lastly, we tested how vitamins affected enzyme reaction rates. We predicted that as concentration of vitamin solutions increased, the reaction rate also increased. We found that increased concentration of vitamins of both brands accelerated catechol oxidation to the primary product, o-benzoquinone. We also observed the Daily One Supplements produced no significant difference in enzyme reaction compared to Flintstones.
Figures (By Elizabeth Sanborn, Revised By
Jill Allen, Finished By Dan Nguyen)
1 2 3
4 5 6 7
8
Figure 1: Bial’s Test
of several known carbohydrates. This test was used as a control for our
experiment determining whether the Flintstones vitamins and Daily One vitamins
have the same nutritional value. This
test was testing if the organic compound was a pentose furanose ring, hexose
furanose ring, or neither. The yellow
color turns greenish if the sugar is a furanose (has a five membered ring like
furan). If the sugar is a pentose-furanose, then the color will change to a
green/olive color. If the sugar is a hexose (or higher)-furanose, then the
color will change to a muddy brown, or if the sugar is a pyranose, then there
will be no color change. Below are the results of Bial’s test on the sugars
glucose, fructose, galactose, lactose, xylose, maltose, sucrose, and starch.
- This is the Bial’s test
on starch. The solution had no change and stayed a yellow color. This
indicates that the sugar starch is a pyranose sugar.
- This is the Bial’s
test on sucrose. The solution changed to an olive green color. This
indicates that the sugar sucrose is a pentose-furanose sugar.
- This is the Bial’s
test on lactose. The solution had no change and stayed a yellow color.
This indicates that the sugar lactose is a pyranose sugar.
- This is the Bial’s
test on galactose. The solution had no change and stayed a yellow color.
This indicates that the sugar galactose is a pyranose sugar.
- This is the Bial’s
test on xylose. The solution changed to a blue/green color. This indicates
that the sugar xylose is a furanose sugar.
- This is the Bial’s
test on maltose. The solution had no change and stayed a yellow color.
This indicates that the sugar maltose is a pyranose sugar.
- This is the Bial’s
test on fructose. The solution changed to an olive green color. This
indicates that the sugar fructose is a pentose-furanose sugar.
- This is the Bial’s
test on glucose. The solution had no change and stayed a yellow color.
This indicates that the sugar glucose is a pyranose sugar.
Discussion (By Dan Nguyen, Revised by Elizabeth Sanborn, Finished by
Ashley Anderson)
By comparing
Flintstones with Daily One Supplements, it was predicted that both vitamin
brands would provide the same essential nutrients and health benefits, though
Flintstones would have a higher sugar concentration due to its sweet taste. The
vitamins were tested to see if they had similar compositions, or if there were
differences in terms of nutritional value. The data from the carbohydrate
identification tests contradicted our hypothesis. To support our hypothesis, we
investigated the effects vitamins had on enzyme reaction rates and the
existence or nonexistence of photosynthetic pigments. The data from the enzyme
reaction rates and paper chromatography experiments confirmed our hypothesis
that these vitamin brands provided similar effects. Parts of our hypothesis
were both confirmed and refuted. Both the Flintstones vitamins and the Daily
One Supplements were found to be different in terms of carbohydrates
composition, photosynthetic pigments, and effects on enzyme kinetics. However,
in terms of nutritional values, neither supplement seemed to be superior over
the other.
Carbohydrates Identification
Tests
Photographs were taken of the test tubes of the vitamin solutions after performing the carbohydrate identification tests (Figures 6-15). The tests enabled identification of different carbohydrate structures and thus lead to the taxonomy of specific carbohydrates in the separate vitamins. Positive tests showed the presence of different carbohydrates in both the Flintstones vitamins and the Daily One Supplements (Table 2, Table 3).
The
Benedict’s test showed
negative results in the Flintstones vitamins. This negative conclusion arose
when copper precipitate was negated. This suggested the nonexistence of
reducing sugars in the Flintstones vitamins. In the Barfoed’s test, copper was
not reduced and the color of the solution did not change from its original blue
coloring. This insinuated that disaccharide and polysaccharide sugars were
not present. For the Selivanoff’s test, the solution turned a peach color after
an average of 33.3 seconds. This
prompts belief of the presence of ketose sugars. In the Bial’s test, the
solution turned an olive/brown color. The color change implied the
presence of hexose-furanose sugars. Lastly, the Iodine test confirmed that the
substance had no change in color; this was an indication that the substance
lacked starch (Table 2, Table 3).
The generic, Daily One vitamins
resulted in different conclusions for all of the sugar tests, excluding the
Iodine test. The data for the Iodine test concluded to be negative, as it had
similarly concluded for the Flintstones vitamins; this negativity lead to the
belief that starch was not present in either of the vitamins. The Bial’s,
Benedict’s, Barfoed’s and Selivanoff’s tests in the Daily One Supplements had different
results than the tested in the Flintstones. Instead of changing to a
greenish/olive color, the Bial’s test revealed a color change to muddy brown.
This implied that the Daily One Supplements had hexose (or higher)-furanose
sugars. For Benedict’s test, the solution turned a dark green color, which
indicated that some of the copper was reduced, signifying the presence of
reducing sugars. For Barfoed’s test a copper (orange/red) precipitate formed
and revealed the fact that reducing sugars (monosaccharides) were present. For
Selivanoff’s test there was no change in color, which therefore suggested that
there were no ketose sugars in the generic vitamins (Table 2, Table 3). These
tests insinuated that both vitamins contained different types of sugars. The
Daily One Supplements showed evidence for reducing sugars (free or potentially
free aldehyde or ketone groups), reducing sugars that are monosaccharide, and
for hexose-furanose sugars. Although in significant contrast, the Flintstones
vitamins revealed evidence for the presence of only ketose sugars and
pentose-furanose (Table 1, Table 2).
This evidence found in the data of our tests does not support our hypothesis and predictions; it disproves our prediction that Flintstones vitamins possessed more carbohydrates, and therefore could have enhanced nutritional benefits sufficiently. Data from these tests surprisingly showed more carbohydrates present in the Daily One Supplements.
Paper Chromatography
In this experiment, paper chromatography was used to extract and identify any type of photosynthetic pigments found in children’s vitamins. Paper Chromatography is also used in revealing excess dyes that may be present in the vitamins. Some of the possible photosynthetic pigments that could be present were: carotene, xanthophylls, chlorophyll a, and chlorophyll b.
If the
photosynthetic pigments were indeed revealed in the vitamins, then four
distinct color bands should have appeared from the experiment. The bands would
represent the four different pigments in this order: carotene (orange-yellow),
xanthophylls (light yellow), chlorophyll a (blue-green), and chlorophyll b
(light green). If there were no photosynthetic pigments in the vitamins, it
would unveil inconclusive results (Figure 16, Figure 17). The Flintstones
vitamins demonstrated no color bands with both the 1% and 10% solutions. The
generic vitamins produced no color bands with the 1% solution. However, the 10%
solution of the generic vitamins produced a red unidentified color band with an
Rf value of .95 and another yellow color band of 1.00 similar to the
Rf value of carotene. This concluded that the generic vitamin
carried a significantly larger concentration of carotene; this is important
because beta-carotene provides the body with a safe source of vitamin A.
Beta-carotene is also an antioxidant, working with other natural protectors to
defend your cells from harmful free radical damage caused by highly reactive
substances that either form in the body or are acquired from the environment
(i.e. air pollution, cigarette smoke, smoke carcinogens, etc.) (Beta Carotene,
Enzyme Experiment
The increased concentration of vitamin solution of both vitamins increased the acceleration of the rate of reaction. The generic brand of children’s vitamins produced no significant difference with the Flintstones vitamins in terms of enzyme reaction rate and product formation. Both vitamins had no significant difference and both had similar effects on enzyme reaction rates.
We found that both vitamins had similar data plots in terms of magnitude of reaction rates. The acceleration of the enzyme reactions producing the primary product o-benzoquinone were also similar (Figure 19). It was also concluded that increasing the concentration of both vitamin solutions had a slight effect to increase enzyme reaction rates (Figure 19). However, both vitamin solutions had statistically similar results.
The results for the Bradford Assay were inconclusive. Negative values were found for protein composition for all three trials of the experiment except for the 10% solution of Flintstones vitamins. The 10% Flintstones solution resulted in an average of 1.43 micrograms of protein when compared with the BSA graph.
This
experiment supports our hypothesis that both vitamins are effective in
increasing the reaction rate of enzymes. This was important to our experiment
and hypothesis because enzymes simulate substantial metabolic reactions that
occur inside the human body, such as digestion (
Some imperfections throughout the experiments may
have affected our ability to reveal correct results. Throughout our
investigations, we could have done significantly more trials while
experimenting; a larger amount of concentration for each vitamin could have
affected our data. The concentrations in some of the prepared vitamin solution
could have actually been insignificant enough to produce a data set or a
variation in the data. If the concentration of the vitamin solution were too
small, then the data would have shown little or no significant difference in
results in comparison to the control of each experiment. Another problem we had
in creating the vitamin solutions were that sometimes the vitamins would not
completely dissolve into the solutions, and thus it was difficult to keep
completely homogenous throughout the duration of the experiments. This could
have been due to the inability of the vitamins to dissolve into distilled water
and/or the solutions could have added crushed vitamins beyond the saturation
point of the water. This would cause for the collection of random, altered
data. Results would seem to be sporadic due to the fluctuating concentration of
the vitamin solutions.