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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Aug 10.
Published in final edited form as: Anal Chem. 2021 Jul 26;93(31):11025–11032. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.1c02399

Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Quantitative assessment of α-amylase on face coverings. (A) The activities of amylase were: ≥4000 U/L, Abs.me = 16.8 for neck gaiter; 1400 U/L, Abs.me = 4.9 for cloth mask; 3200 U/L, Abs.me = 10.3 for surgical mask; and 800 U/L, Abs.me = 3.1 for N95 respirator for 8 h wearing. The new masks contained no amylase activity (Abs.me ~ 0.7, see data corresponding to baseline for each). (B) Tri-layer surgical mask shows that the inner fabric captured most of the released salivary amylase (2866 U/L, Abs.me = 9.3). No amylase was detected on the middle and outer layers. (C) Time evolution of α-amylase level on neck gaiters. The activities of amylase were: 433 U/L, Abs.me = 2.0 for 1 h; 3000 U/L, Abs.me = 9.7 for 4 h; ≥4000 U/L, Abs.me = 16.8 for 8 h; and ≥4000 U/L, Abs.me = 14. 2 for 16 h. (D) The measured amylase amount under representative expiratory activities such as breathing (≤200 U/L, Abs.me = 0.7), talking (3400 U/L, Abs.me = 10.9), and running (≥4000 U/L, Abs.me = 16.1) for 1 h. Data on all panels were from 5 participants (n = 5).