Touring the tomato: A suite of chemistry laboratory experiments

An eight-session interdisciplinary laboratory curriculum has been designed using a suite of analytical chemistry techniques to study biomaterials derived from an inexpensive source such as the tomato fruit. A logical progression of research-inspired laboratory modules serves to "tour" the macroscopic characteristics of the fruit and the submicroscopic properties of its constituent cuticular biopolymers by atomic force microscopy (AFM), UV-visible, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods at increasingly detailed molecular levels. The modular curriculum can be tailored for specialty undergraduate courses or summer high school workshops. By applying analytical tools to investigate biopolymers, making connections between molecular and microscale structure, and linking both structural regimes to the functional properties of natural polymers, groundwork is established for further student investigations at the interface of chemistry with biology or chemical engineering.