Studying Saponins

 

My name is Izzy Simon and I'm a senior at Emma Willard School in Troy, NY. Throughout my high school career, I have created and nurtured a strong passion for studying the environment. Over the summer I spent much of my time interning for an environmental education center called Up Yonda where I habilitated the first generation of monarchs through their life cycle and did a great deal of research on the general process of it all.

I became interested not just in the monarchs themselves but the milkweed they ate. The last few weeks of the summer I spent researching milkweed, asking questions such as "Why do monarchs eat it?", "What setting does it grow best in?", and "How many different kinds are there?".  From this, my Signature Project formed. My research focuses specifically on the analyses I did pertaining to saponins in milkweed. Saponins, also known as cardenolides or alkaloids, are a type of steroid found in the latex lining of milkweed. Saponins are responsible for supplying monarchs with their toxic nature, however, these butterflies rely on a very specific amount in their bodies. If they do not ingest enough of this steroid they will be highly susceptible to prey and will lack the vital nutrients they need to survive. If the saponin count in their system becomes too high it can clog their arteries and they will inevitably die.  

I have two goals for this project, the first being to gain a better understanding of the general nature of the sap in milkweed, looking at its viscosity and color based on the setting it is grown. The aspect of my project that is a bit of a reach is studying the saponin concentration in the sap. It has been theorized that changing the setting in which milkweed is grown can affect the saponin count in the nectar, and I would like to see if that can be proved true or not.