Essay On The Effect Of Ph On Catalase

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The activity of an enzyme might be influenced by several factors such as temperature and pH. Each enzyme usually has a given optimal pH needed for its functioning. Within that particular pH value, the enzyme can perform a chemical reaction at the highest possible rate. An increase or decrease in pH from the optimal value usually result in decrease in the enzyme’s activity (Harkness & Cockburn, 2012).
Objective
The lab experiment aimed at investigating the effect of acid or pH on the activity of a catalase enzyme. Catalase enzyme is an enzyme that usually allow its cell to get rid of excessive hydrogen peroxide by splitting hydrogen peroxide into water molecule and oxygen.
Materials required
Fresh meat (fish) which is an acidic food, Yeast, H2O2, fresh vegetable (potato) which is an alkaline food, Dropper, and Scaled Beaker.
Hypothesis testing
Provided catalase enzyme is present within peroxisomes, the optimal pH of the enzyme is supposed to be equal to the pH value of the solution within the peroxisomes. Peroxisomes usually have a pH value that ranges between 6.9 and 7.1 (Rai, 2007). Therefore, the hypothesis for the experiment was that the highest possible rate of enzyme activity that would be observed within neutral pH values, with the pH values being lower that 7.0 would result in a decrease in reaction rate catalyzed by the enzyme …show more content…

Due to the catalase enzyme that was present in the yeast, oxygen gas was emitted from the hydrogen peroxide in form of bubbles. Through measurement of the magnitude of bubbles, the actions of the enzyme on food items could be easily observed. First, 1cm3 of fresh meat was placed in a 100ml cylinder before adding 2cm3 of yeast into the graduated

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