Class: BE210
Group: R3
Members: FACILITATOR Bindu George, TIME & TASK KEEPER, Yoko Kamotani, SCRIBE Pinakin Jethwa, PRESENTER, Adam Engler
Date: 5/11/00
Full Text

Abstract:

In this experiment, nitric acid was used to extract iron from beef liver. The extraction samples were subsequently placed in an Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS) to obtain iron concentrations.  Two distinct preparation techniques yielded iron concentrations that were not significantly different (p=0.59).  Method two was utilized because it was easier to perform and produced less error.  Concentrations of nitric acid, ranging from 0.1M to 0.5M were placed in 20 solutions containing 0.6g of beef liver.  While there was insufficient data to fit an equation, a generally increasing trend was observed.  This can be attributed to an increase in the moles of nitric acid present in the solution.  Also, total iron extraction was attempted in 12 samples in 0.1M nitric acid.  Extractions were performed on 0.6g and 1.0g samples of beef liver, but total extraction was not achieved after multiple resuspension.  0.219 +/- 0.0753 mg Fe/g sample and 0.102 +/- 0.0512 mg Fe/g sample were extracted for 0.6g and 1.0g samples respectively. The values were significantly different from the literature value of 0.0879mg Fe/g for cooked liver (p=0.9).  It was concluded that the nitric acid was limiting due to the difference of about 2x between both the amount extracted and the sample size.