Potato Enzyme Lab

Enzymes are catalysts that speed up chemical reaction but are not themselves consumed or changed by the reaction. The cell’s biological catalysts are proteins. Proteins are made up of one or more polypeptide chains that are folded to make an active site, an area in which a material to be acted on by the enzyme, called the substrate, will fit. The temperature,pH, the concentration of enzyme, and the concentration of substrate all affect the activity of the enzyme and the rate of the reaction. The browning of potatoes when they are peeled is caused by catecholase, an enzyme, as it facilitates a reaction between between catechol and oxygen. In this reaction, oxygen’s electronegativity separates 2 hydrogen atoms from catechol, oxidizing it and therefore converting catechol to benzoquinone molecules that forms long,branched chains. The chains are the backbone of the red and brown pigments that cause darkening.
This was conducted through four different experiments. The first tested the effect of temperature on enzyme activity. The independent variable in the first experiment was the temperature of the solution of pH 7 buffer, potato juice, and the enzyme. The independent variable for the second experiment was the pH of the phosphate buffer. The independent variable for the third experiment was the enzyme concentration of the solution, and finally the independent variable of the fourth experiment was the substrate concentration. For all four experiments, the dependent variable was the rate of the of the enzyme-catalyzed