Our practical was about examining the reaction of an enzyme in a particular type of food, in which the enzyme break down food and digest the existing proteins inside the materials (food). And to investigate the rate of the enzyme’s reaction when its get influenced by different types of pH levels. The enzyme we chose for our lab is the Trypsin. The reason why we chose this particular enzyme is first, for the fact that Trypsin has a very high activity which means its reaction is fast and it digests proteins completely in short period of time.
Second, it could still react with a wide range of different pH levels. Our experiment was based on the theory that implies: reactions of the enzyme with very high or very low pH level will be very slow. While the reaction reach its high speed if the pH level is at 8 which is called as the optimum of the rate of reaction of the Trypsin. Apparatus The material that is used to perform the experiment is Milk solution. pH solutions: pH 3, pH 4, pH 5, pH 7, pH 8, pH 9 and pH 10. 0. 1 g of Trypsin enzyme. Spectra Photometer. A device that maintains the temperature constant.
Procedure At the beginning of the experiment, we prepared all the pH solutions needed. And then we started performing our lab by first, mixing the enzyme with one pH level and then the solution formed was added to the milk solution. After that the solution of the milk and pH/enzyme was being rinsed and took its percentage of transmission of light every two minutes and this transmission was monitored by using the spectra photometer device to measure the clarity of the solution. The experiment was performed under a certain temperature 40 C?
To make the reaction faster and this was followed or controlled by using a large device to maintain the temperature constant. Same method was followed for the rest of the pH levels. The practical was repeated three times for each type of pH examined. A lot of data collected and gathered as shown in the graph below: As we can see from the graph, the results obtained are slightly different that we really expected previously in our hypothesis. To evaluate this lab, no big practical mistakes were made due to the great team work and the acute controlling of variables.
But since the big uncertainty, there must an error that has been occurred or something we did not take into account and that would be, when we added the pH/ enzyme solution directly to the milk solution the pH level has changed because we did not take into consideration that the milk solution have already has a pH value hence the pH of the whole solution has changed and therefore the big uncertainty has occurred. To avoid this problem, using milk powder-instead of milk solution- that reacts directly with the acidic and basic solution, might work out the experiment correctly.