YEAST RESPIRATION

INTRODUCTION

Baker’s yeast is a necessary ingredient in making bread. It is used as the leavening

agent. A leavening agent is a substance causing expansion of dough. A commercial available

baker’s yeast is actually a living fungus made up of living eukaryotic microbes, it also respires or

breathes. It produces energy for the survival of digesting sugar molecules in the presence of

oxygen. As a result, they produce the needed energy and as byproducts, carbon dioxide, and

water.

In this experiment, the researchers will be able to know what will be the reaction of the

baker’s yeast with same amount of boiled water but different in amounts of sugar in clear bags.

Yeast reacts with sugar, causing it to ferment, and this is the reason why sugar is the material

used in this experiment.

The researchers would like to know how baker’s yeast will undergo respiration because

baker’s yeast was said to be respiring and the researchers would like to prove if it really does

respire.

A. Statement of the Problem

The purpose of this research is to find evidences to prove how the baker’s yeast

undergoes respiration and to do the following:

1. To observe the baker’s yeast undergo respiration in through presence of oxygen.

2. To differentiate the baker’s yeast undergoing respiration through multiple experiments.

3. To observe the significance of the presence of sugar when mixing up with the yeast.
B. Scope and Limitation

The researchers used baker’s yeast, which is commonly used for baking bread and

other bakery products. It is to convert the fermentable sugars present in the dough into carbon

dioxide and ethanol. The experiment was taken at Mater Ecclesiae School SHS Laboratory. It

took an hour to see the bubble formation in the process and waited for 23 hours to finish the

undergo respiration of the baker’s yeast.

The research is limited to simple baker’s yeast undergo respiration through only white

type of sugar and boiling water to observe the bubble formation.

METHODOLOGY

The materials used are boiled water, five clear plastic ziplock bags, a teaspoon, baker’s

yeast, white sugar, a graduated cylinder, a beaker, a stirring rod, and a thermometer.

The first step is to boil 500 ml of water to remove bacteria. Then set it aside and let it

cool down to 37°C to 40°C .The temperature can be measured with the help of a thermometer.

The researchers also used a stirring rod to minimally help the cooling down of the water. Inorder

for the water to cool down at a quicker rate, half of the water is poured into another container.

Meanwhile, the bags are labeled as A, B, C, D and E then, a teaspoon of yeast was poured.

When the water is warm enough, the researchers poured 100 ml into each clear plastic bag.

Then, one teaspoon of sugar was added to bag A, two teaspoons in bag B, three in bag C, four

in bag D and none in bag E. The plastic bags are sealed tightly and left in room temperature for

24 hours to wait for results.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

 In bag A, when one teaspoon of sugar was added, there was a slow formation of

bubbles. This is because of the yeast eating up the sugar that was added and in return,

releases carbon dioxide. In bag b, the same happened but there were more bubbles formed. As

well in bag C, but there were larger amount of bubbles compared to A and B. Lastly, in bag D,

when four teaspoons of sugar were added, there were a significantly larger amount of bubble

formation compared to all the other bags, in a much faster rate. While in Bag E, there was no

sugar added, thus, there were no bubbles or any reaction at all. This proves that the more sugar

you add, the more food the yeasts have, and therefore, more carbon dioxide is released.

A. A side by side comparison of bubble formation and bag expansion due to carbon dioxide

release.

It is also noticeable that after 24 hours, after sealing the bag tightly, the bags have

expanded, except for bag E. The expansion of the bags was a result of the formation of carbon

dioxide. Bag E has no inflation at all. Bag A has the lowest amount of expansion, followed by

Bag B, then C. Bag D had the most expansion, due to larger amounts of sugar added. There is

also an odor coming from the bags. This is because fermentation is taking place. The smell is
similar to alcohol, since it is also a byproduct from eating sugars. Another byproduct is heat,

after consumption of sugars.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

In conclusion, the presence of sugar plays a major role in the experiment because the

yeast feeds on sugar. After synthesizing the sugar, the yeast then emits carbon dioxide as

waste product, causing the ziplock bags to inflate. There is variation in the amount of sugar

added in each ziplock bags and the researchers have observed that more sugar added means

higher presence of carbon dioxide.

In conducting the laboratory activity, it is crucial to observe the required amount of

temperature in the water that will be utilized because too much heat might destroy the yeast and

exposure of yeast to cold water will deactivate it. The ziplock bags should also be placed to a

fairly warm temperature so that the yeast is still activated. On making observation, it is best to

minimize the agitation of the ziplocks bags so that it will not interfere in the results.

REFERENCES

Castro, J. (2013, December 20) What Is Yeast? (https://www.livescience.com/42140-

what-is-yeast-candida.html)

Hewiston, J. and Hill, C. (2018) How does sugar affect yeast growth?

(http://www.saps.org.uk/saps-associates/browse-q-and-a/169-q-a-a-how-does-sugar-affect-

yeast-growth)