Breaking Down Starch Lab Report
Introduction: Everyday thousands of chemical reactions happen in our bodies. These reactions produce the energy for our bodies to use. During these chemical reactions there are enzymes, biological catalysts, which help speed up metabolic reactions by lowering the energy barriers without being used up or altered in the reaction. (Campball, 2008) Every enzyme has an optimum pH at which it is most active. An increase or decrease in the pH of the solution will cause the enzyme to have a change in its three dimensional shape. If an enzyme is placed in an environment that is to basic or acidic the reaction will take longer to digest the starch because the enzyme shape has changed and the substrate will have a harder time connecting to the active
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Amylase is found in the saliva of humans and is responsible for the first step in breaking down starch. Starch is a polysaccharide composed of a large number glucose monomers joined together. Amylase breaks down starch by separating the glucose molecules into maltose, which is a two glucose-unit compound. (Morgan, 2008) During this experiment we investigated the influence of pH on the activity of the enzyme Amylase. We are able to use the fact that when I2KI is placed in a starch solution the solution turns a dark purple which shows that the starch has not been digested. When solution remains a yellow amber color this means that all the starch has been digested. Amylase was placed in five separate test tubes with each test tube having a different pH level. Using a test plate we placed a drop of the amylase solution on top of a drop of I2KI every 10-seconds to test the time it takes amylase to digest the starch. The optimal pH for amylase is determined by the shortest time of starch digestion. The pH of the saliva in the mouth ranges from 5.76- 7.96 depending on the person. (Larsen, 1998) If saliva pH ranges from 5.76 to 7.96 we believe that amylase activity will be most active between 6 to 7 pH, so the tests tubes with a pH level of 6 and 7 should have the
Amylase is found in the saliva of humans and is responsible for the first step in breaking down starch. Starch is a polysaccharide composed of a large number glucose monomers joined together. Amylase breaks down starch by separating the glucose molecules into maltose, which is a two glucose-unit compound. (Morgan, 2008) During this experiment we investigated the influence of pH on the activity of the enzyme Amylase. We are able to use the fact that when I2KI is placed in a starch solution the solution turns a dark purple which shows that the starch has not been digested. When solution remains a yellow amber color this means that all the starch has been digested. Amylase was placed in five separate test tubes with each test tube having a different pH level. Using a test plate we placed a drop of the amylase solution on top of a drop of I2KI every 10-seconds to test the time it takes amylase to digest the starch. The optimal pH for amylase is determined by the shortest time of starch digestion. The pH of the saliva in the mouth ranges from 5.76- 7.96 depending on the person. (Larsen, 1998) If saliva pH ranges from 5.76 to 7.96 we believe that amylase activity will be most active between 6 to 7 pH, so the tests tubes with a pH level of 6 and 7 should have the