How does varying the concentration Rennin affect the coagulation time of Milk

Authors Avatar

Laura Wetherill 11FJWa                                                                              5th February 2002

Biology Assessed Practical 2002

How does varying the concentration Rennin affect the coagulation time of Milk?

Scientific Knowledge

Enzymes

Enzymes are large molecules, which are protein in nature. They are biological catalysts that speed up chemical reactions in the body. They operate by a “lock and key” method. The Enzyme has a certain “lock” (active site) that only a specified substrates “key” will fit into.

 

Rennin

A proteolytic enzyme that speeds up the coagulation of milk. It is usually found in the tissues of a calves fourth stomach. Its purpose is to coagulate the milk in young animals so that the proteins have time to be extracted, rather than flowing straight through the digestive system. This particular enzyme catalyses the conversion of the protein in milk (caseinogen) into paracasein. This forms a thick curd in the stomach meaning the milk can be exposed to Rennin for a greater period of time.

Milk

Milk is an almost complete food. It consists of proteins (mainly ), salts, fat and milk sugar, or . It also contains vitamins A, C, D, certain B vitamins, and small amounts of others.

Factors That May Affect The Reaction

  • The concentration of Rennin
  • The concentration of Milk
  • The volume of Rennin
  • The volume of Milk
  • The temperature of the reaction
  • Agitation

The factor I have chosen to explore is the concentration of Rennin because I believe that varying the temperature of the reaction is very hard to control and therefore may be inaccurate and agitation is a very simple investigation. I have a prediction for the investigation concerning the concentration of Rennin, another reason I chose this factor.

Join now!

Prediction

I predict that as the concentration of rennin increases the rate of reaction will increase. I believe this to be true because if there are an increased number of enzymes, more milk particles will be broken up at any one time into the substance, which coagulates the milk, resulting in an increased rate of reaction. I also predict that eventually all the milk will be coagulated by a certain number of enzymes in a certain time. If after this point the concentration is still increased, it will make no reaction and the experiment will be in excess of Rennin. ...

This is a preview of the whole essay