Sam and Sarah planned and carried out an experiment to see the effect of pH on the activity of the enzyme amylase which breaks down starch into sugar.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Carly Mckenzie 17/10/01

Investigation on Enzymes

Introduction

Sam and Sarah planned and carried out an experiment to see the effect of pH on the activity of the enzyme amylase which breaks down starch into sugar. They decided to investigate 5 different pH's 2,4,6,8 and 10.

1. The used a measuring cylinder to measure out 5cm3 of starch and placed it in a test tube. They then added acid or alkali until they got to pH2. They checked this using indicator paper

2. They placed the test tube in a rack on the bench and added 5cm3 of amylase which they had also measured using a measuring cylinder.

3. Immediately, they took out a drop of the mixture and placed it on a spotting tile which had 2 drops of Iodine in it. They repeated this every 30 seconds until they knew all of the starch had been broken down, so they stopped.

4. They then repeated the experiment at the different pHs'.

5. They did the experiment 3 times for each pH

Aim

Sam and Sarah planned to discover the effects of pH on the activity of the enzyme amylase