Enzyme - Biology Essays

Aim
To find out at what temperature does catalyse enzyme work best in and in what optimum temperature the rate of reaction increases.

Theory
Enzyme is a substance of protein that helps digest food all around our body. Enzymes have the ability to catalyse reactions in living organisms. Catalyse enzymes are found all around our body especially in our liver. Catalyse enzyme creates hydrogen peroxide in to oxygen and water. There are two types of enzymes the builders and the breakers. Every enzyme has an optimum temperature that it works best in; they react faster and more quickly. Enzymes are used to digest different types of food such as fat, carbohydrates etc. catalyse enzymes are found in potato, they break down hydrogen peroxide and water in to oxygen. Catalyse enzymes work best in body

temperature because they are well suited to that temperature. Catalyse enzymes can be affected by temperature, concentration level but it is mostly affected by temperature. The structure of an enzyme is that the food is a substrate and the enzyme has an active site. The substrate fits in to the active site to produce a molecule of enzyme. If the temperature condition is too hot or too cold then the enzyme would denature this means it will die and will not work again. So it is very important for an enzyme to be in a suitable condition with the right optimum temperature.

The breakers.
The breakers are a part of the enzyme structure. What they do is originally the substrate comes in one and fits inside the active site but what the breakers does is it breaks the substrate in to two parts which fit into the active site. It just basically breaks the substrate into two parts that is why it is called the breakers.

The builders.
What the builders do is build the substrate if it was broken in to two. It joins the substrate so that it fits into the active site in one whole piece. It does the exact opposite job of the builders.

The job for both of these is to make sure that the substrate fits inside the active site well and that it does not denature.
Prediction
What I predict that is the perfect optimum temperature for the catalyse enzyme is body temperature which is 37c. This is because catalyse

enzyme is found in the body so it will be best suited in that temperature. Also 37c is in the middle, what I mean is that it is not too hot so that the enzyme would denature neither is it too cold for the enzyme. It is in the middle so I think, I predict that 37c would be the best optimum temperature for the catalyse enzyme. Also by looking at my graphs and tables it backs my prediction.

Safety
When carrying out the experiment you must make sure that you are safe. You should follow all the safety instructions such as tying your hair back, wearing safety goggles, moving bags and coats away from the floor. But the experiment for to find the optimum temperature is not that dangerous because we are not dealing with dangerous acids but we still are doing an experiment so you must make sure you are safe.

Equipment
1. conical flask
2. beaker
3. delivering tube
4. potato
5. grater
6. knife
7. hydrogen peroxide
8. tweezers
9. bath tubs
10. safety goggles
11. paper
12. balance
13. apparatus
14. stop watch
15. measuring cylinder

Analysis
By looking at my graph I can tell that what I stated in my prediction was right because in our experiments, when we used potatoes heated up to the temperature of 40c the rate of reaction was fast. The amount of oxygen produced was big really big. It produced more oxygen then any other. This is because 40c is the nearest temperature to body temperature which is 37c. The difference was only by 3c so my

graphs and results back my prediction up. The pattern I see within the results is that in temperatures such as 10, 22 and 30 it didn’t work that well because the temperature was too cold so this means that the enzyme must have denatured. In temperatures such as 50 and 60 again the amount of oxygen produced was low so this tells me that this temperature must have been too hot so it denatured the enzyme. Thos tells me that the optimum temperature for catalyse enzyme is 40c. Which I said in my prediction so this means what I predicted was right.

Evaluation
Overall throughout the experiment what was bad is that what I think must have been bad was that we put the potato in the bathtub before measuring which means after it reached the right temperature we had to take it out and measure it which takes about a minute which means that the temperature level must have gone down. This means that the test was not a fair test. So this is some thing I would improve next time. What was good about the experiment was that the potatoes wren nicely grated and that the results we had were really good and helpful.

Conclusion
Overall the experiment was a success and we got what we wanted. The good thing is we have achieved our aim which was to find the perfect optimum temperature which is 40c nearest to body temperature. So the experiment was good. What I would improve is making sure I measure the potato before putting into the bath tub. But the experiment was a success in my eyes.