Enzyme pH lab

pH and it’s effect on enzymes

Introduction:

Our experiment tested how enzymes are affected by different pH levels. Enzymes are proteins made up of amino acids which act as catalysts in an organic reaction. These catalysts turn toxins into harmless substances, help you digest, and boost your immune system. Enzymes are triggered by substrates such as hydrogen peroxide or lactase. Not only do enzymes help in digestion, but they speed up any reaction in the human body. Enzymes can be found in almost any living thing on earth.

Purpose:

To test how the rate of a chemical reaction between an enzyme and substrate varies with different pH levels.

Hypothesis:

My hypothesis stated that the enzymes rate of reaction increases as a mixture becomes more basic. If pH levels are related to the enzyme’s rate of reaction, the more basic the solution is, the bigger the column of foam triggered by the reaction will be.

Materials:

Hydrochloric acid

sodium hydroxide

hydrogen peroxide

water

syringes

beakers

safety goggles

test tubes

bindweed

Mortar and pestle

Iphone

Procedure:

1.) Go to the garden and pick a handful of bindweed

2.) Grind up the bindweed leaves in a mortar and pestle

3.) Add 20 ml of H2O to the mortar containing the bindweed and blend with the pestle

4.) Extract the enzyme by pouring the bindweed mixture through a paper towel into a beaker

5.) Put 1 ml of the extract into each test tubes with 1 ml of the varying pH Mixtures

6.)  Add ½ ml of hydrogen peroxide to one test tube at a time

7.) Measure the reaction in mm with a ruler

8.) Repeat steps 6 and 7 until all test tubes have been used

9.) Record and analyze results

Observations and data:

	7 pH		10 pH		7.5 pH		6.5 pH		5.5 pH
	control 1	control 2	pH 12//1	pH 12//2	pH 10//1	pH 10//2	pH 3-4//1	pH 3-4//2	pH 2-3//1	pH 2-3//2
	3.87	3.14	1.46	2.98	0.46	1.68	1.16	3.51	1.54	1.66
	6.29	13.07	3.17	4.32	1.37	3.19	4.21	8.37	5.43	4.96
	8.2	17.35	5.28	5.93	2.53	4.67	7.54	27.58	12.04	10.81
	10.15	20.98	6.67	8.17	4.41	6.55	10.85			17.37
	12.56	24.68	8.23	12.68	5.14	8.14	13.78
	15.94	29.94	9.68	15.49	6.37	9.77	17.04
	20.3		11.26	17.94	7.7	11.72	24.59
	23.18		12.91	20.78	9.41	13.6
	26.14		14.74	24.16	10.91	15.94
	29.45		17.34		12.9	18.34
	32.88				14.28
	36.63				17.3
	40.94

Data analysis:

The graph is read as every point being one mm.  Each of these lines is the average of our two experiments for every different pH.

Conclusion:

Our data shows that the control and higher basic pHs affected the enzyme’s reaction the most. With the pH of 10 and 12, the foam reaction was much larger and sustained for a longer amount of time than either of the acidic solutions. Because of this data, my hypothesis tested correct. An abiotic factor such as pH levels influence the rate of a reaction in an enzyme most with basic solutions, such as sodium hydroxide. More basic bodies would result in faster reactions with enzymes, causing your body to be overall healthy. With a more acidic body, reactions will take longer time and you may be less healthy.