Potato Enzyme Lab Report

The purpose of this experiment is to study how enzyme activity is affected by environmental conditions. Researchers tested the level of potato extract enzyme activity with 1-11 pH, varying temperature, catechol solution, hydroquinone solution, and different measurements of catechol. In Figure 1A and 1B, pH levels were tested with potato extract to see how pH would affect the amount of Benzoquinone is formed in the potato. Although it was hypothesized that enzymes would form Benzoquinone better in acidic pH levels, the absorbency recorded stated that the higher the absorbency, the higher amount of Benzoquinone was produced. The hypothesis wasn’t fully supported by the data because the highest detection of Benzoquinone had an optimal pH of 5. Overall, the pH levels began to decrease on both ends of the pH of 5. In Figure 2, the data proved the hypothesis to be incorrect because the highest absorbency and most effective temperature came from 20oC. In other words, 20oC produced the greatest amount of benzoquinone.
In other words, the protein denatured. With the higher temperature test tubes, clumps of the potato extract formed on the bottom of the test tube and interfered with the spectrophotometer. Whereas, the lower bathed temperatures had icicles, which reflected the light back of the spectrophotometer. It was concluded that the murky colored tubes shouldn’t be included because it would be a systematic error due to the excess potato extract and murkiness interfered with the spectrophotometer. Moreover, in Figure 3A and 3B, hydroquinone is the enzyme that produces the dark color. The darker the color signifies the enzymes are in action. Lastly, in Figures 4a and 4b, it was determined that if too much substrate was added, the rate of the reaction would eventually stop increasing. Once substrate was added, the enzyme activity leveled