During this experiment, we exposed solutions of aspartame to base. What was the product of this reaction? Suppose you took your beverage containing aspartame and exposed it to concentrated H2SO4 and heat. What are products you might observe that you didn’t just mention? Which bond(s) are broken in the formation of these products? 3) This experiment relied on TLC and other qualitative tests. Why were IR or NMR spectroscopy not an option for analysis? 4) Which colors were observed after dipping your TLC plate in ninhydrin? Why were there multiple different colored products, and what functional groups did each colored product contain? What features of the starting material’s structure caused these colorimetric differenc

2) Base in solution of aspartame leads to hydrolysis which results information of methanol.  Under conc. H₂SO₄ condition it will hydrolyze completely resulting in formation of methanol , phenylalanine and aspartic acid.  Bonds that are broken in this are ester and pepstide linkages.  Find attached explanation

3) TLC and qualitative test are used for crude product. Where as IR and NMR required highly pure compound. Therefore, we prefer TLC and qualitative tests.  TLC separate the different components which can further be analysed.

4) TLC dipping into ninhydrin results red or blue purple or yellow orange colour. .Amines(including α-amino acids) react with ninhydrin to give a coloured product. The α-amino acids typically give a blue-purple product. Proline, a secondary amine, gives a yellow-orange product. Amines results in formation of red colour.

Explanation: