Australia's Science Forum

I have a request for a prac using saliva but was told it should not be used because of the risk of Hepatitis. Would this be a written directive, if so any idea where it would come from.

Hope you all enjoyed the St Mary's confrence as much as I did. Hats off to the fab team of organisers.

Hi Rhonda,
If you check out CSIS Section 3.2.6.1 page 57 it will tell you about use of saliva in experiments.

Lorrae

Hi Rhonda,
i told my teachers long ago not to use saliva . We use amalyse.
Have a good holiday.
Lada

Thank you Lada and Lorrae,
We are doing the experiment tomorrow, so the teacher is going to wash everything in bleach before it comes back to me. Had a quick look in my chemicals catalogues and couldn't see amalyse, any hints on where to source it?

I intend to have a fantastic holiday. My dear husband is taking myself, my sister and mother to the Great Ocean Road, will he survive?????

Southern Biological sells amylase. That's where we get it from. Try looking under diastase as well.

Hi Rhonda
Have a great holiday
I did the great ocean road two years ago was great can't wait to go back and do it from the this end.
We came from the SA side drove with the van on the back next to the mountian as my hubby hates hights.
Noona

I am looking at alternatives to using saliva in an experiment (not sure if its a good thing for year 9's to be spitting everywhere! ).
I see in this thread that some of you do use amylase which I have in stock. How do I make this up and use to substitute for saliva. Help needed please

Pilar

Amylase solution: dissolve 0.1 gm of amylase in 100mls of water.

Make solution up fresh when required.

Make the amylase up as a 1% solution.
Use a 1% starch solution and iodine as the indicator.
I've done a few experiments with this and the best method I came up with was 5ml starch with 5ml H20 and 1 drop of iodine then 2ml of amylase solution. The reaction takes about 10 mins. You will get a colour change from Dark purple blu to light purple to clear.
I set this method up with a light meter and a data logger and it works well.

Hope this helps

Lorrae

Thank Lorrae, for the info on saliva back in Dec 2008 Quote "CSIS Section 3.2.6.1 page 57" end quote. We are having a discussion about its use here at present and it is great to be able to have something in writing. Knew I could count on this site.
Carolyn.

Your Welcome Carolyn,

I find this site invaluable for all sorts of information and also it cheers me up and stops that feeling of isolation you can get when you work on your own.

Lorrae

I'm with you Lorrae! I'd go nuts (if I'm not already... ) without this site!
Lou P.