cfellrath's blog

The vampire bat’s gut microbiome shows that the functional profile is less influenced by the phylogeny than the taxonomic profile. The vampire bat harbors a set of functions specialized to its extreme diet. Which was characterized by the KEGG annotations of the microbial non-redundant gene catalogues assembled from the metagenomic data sets.

There are two types of muscles smooth and striated. Smooth muscles are located in the digestive tract. Smooth muscles function by the pathway of the autonomic nervous system, which is the pathway from the brain that occurs involuntary. Striated muscles are broken down further as cardiac and skeletal. Cardiac muscles are also controlled by the autonomic nervous system and are located in the cardiovascular region of the body such as the heart. Skeletal muscles are the muscles that move bones around joints, moves eyes, they also help a person breather and produce speech such as the diaphragm. Unlike the cardiac and smooth muscles, skeletal muscles are controlled by the somatic nervous system.

There are two types of muscles smooth and striated. Smooth muscles are located in the digestive tract and are afferent. Smooth muscles are associated with the autonomic nervous system, which is the pathway from the brain that occurs involuntary. Striated muscles are broken down further as cardiac and skeletal. Cardiac muscles are also controlled by the autonomic nervous system and are located in the cardiovascular region of the body such as the heart. Skeletal muscles are the muscles that move bones around joints, moves eyes, they also help a person breather and produce speech such as the diaphragm. Unlike the cardiac and smooth muscles, skeletal muscles are controlled by the somatic nervous system.

The TLC analysis, the solvent that was proven to be the best was 95% Hexane, 5% Ethyl acetate although it the ratio between the two compounds was not perfect for separation of the products. The solvent that was proven the best was 70% Hexane, 30% Ethyl acetate. This solvent showed a greater separation of products and distinct identity of each product in lane B compared to lanes A and C. 

In this lab, an Sn2 reaction took place with 2-naphthyl as the nucleophile which displaced the iodide to form butyl naphthyl ether and sodium iodide. The percent yield I obtained from this experiment was 13.6%. The percent yield is relatively low. The first reason my products yield was low was because the melting point was very low, I noticed that as I was weighing the product some of the product melted on the filter paper. I could have avoided the loss of product this way by being more careful when handling the solid product and making sure no heat was applied to it. Also the addition of NaOH before refluxing is important so the product is properly deprotonated so that the product does not become oil when recrystallizing. If the product is oil instead of crystals then the product would go through the filtration. The melting point obtained was 31- 33⁰C. Compared to the melting point of butyl naphthyl ether which is 33-35^oC, the product produced in this lab was close in range to the one given to us. Therefore, my product is mostly pure although the discrepancies between the temperature given to us and the one obtained in the experiment can be explained the presence of possible impurities that are left in the product.

Both 2-naphthyl and the product produced were dissolved in ethyl acetate. Then on three TLC plates put in one lane just the dissolved 2-naphthyl, the second lane is two spots of both dissolved 2-naphthyl and dissolved product, and in the third lane the dissolved product. The first plate is dissolved in the solvent of 95% ethyl acetate and 5% hexane. The second plate is dissolved in the solvent of 95% hexane and 5 % ethyl acetate. After analyzing which solvent worked better which was 95% hexane and 5% ethyl acetate, the ratios were changed to get the best results. The final plate was dissolved in 70% hexane and 30% ethyl acetate. 

Next, fill a 50 mL beaker with ice up to about 30 mL line. Then add the mixture over the ice, and rinse the round bottomed flask twice with 1 mL of ice cold water to help transfer any product left behind. Stir the mixture in the beaker until only 10% of ice is left. The product is then collected through a vacuum filtration and rinsed with ice water. Let dry under suction for at least 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, use a small amount to run a TLC analysis. After at least one night left to dry measure the melting point and percent yield. The melting point was 31- 33^oC and the percent yield was 13.6%.

In a 10 mL round bottomed flask add 0.064 g of NaOH, 0.20 g of 2-naphthyl, and boiling stones. Then add 3 ml of absolute ethanol to the round bottomed flask and attach to the air condenser. Reflux the mixture by hovering the flask over the sand bath until there are no longer any solids and continue for 25 minutes. After the 25 minutes, cool the mixture for 3 minutes. After the 3 minutes, add 0.2 mL of n-butyl iodide through the top of the air condenser and then reflux the mixture for an hour. Cool water in an ice bath for the last 10 minutes of the reflux.

In this lab, cyclohexanol was distilled with a phosphoric acid catalyst, giving a 35.9 % yield of cyclohexene. After the putting the test sample of my product in the gas chamber (GC), the result should that the product obtained was in fact cyclohexene. The standard GC graph shows a retention time at 0.205. The GC graph obtained from the cyclohexene product showed a retention time of 0.175, which is not much different than the standard. The IR analysis showed the results have a major dip between 3200 and 2800 l/cm. The standard IR analysis shows a dip from 3061.03 to 2837.29 l/cm. The results obtained are a clear indicator that the product was cyclohexene. There is a dip at 1635.00 l/cm indicates that there is a double bond in the product. Since there is lack of a dip between 3400 to 3200, which would indicate alcohol is present, my product does not contain alcohol. After these two methods of analysis, the results can confirm that the product was indeed cyclohexene.

In the two chemical tests, the product was proven to be cyclohexene based on the results. In the bromine test cyclohexene remained colorless while the cyclohexane became a brownish orange color. In the potassium permanganate test cyclohexene formed a brown precipitate while cyclohexane remained clear on the top with purple color on the bottom.