Biological Membrane Lab

The first 200 words of this essay...

The Effect of Alcohol on Biological Membranes

Purpose:

* To use a Colorimeter to measure the color intensity of beet pigment in alcohol solutions.

* Test the effect of three (methanol, ethanol, and 1-propanol) different alcohols on membranes.

* Test the effect of different alcohol concentrations (0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%) on membranes.

Hypothesis:

It is predicted that the most damaging type of alcohol to least damaging would be in this order; 1-propanol, ethanol, and methanol. Propanol will cause the most damage and result in a stronger red color because it has longer carbon chains than ethanol and methanol. This will result in an increase of the non polar characteristics of Propanol. Also, as methanol and ethanol have stronger hydrophobic carbon chains, it will bring about a slower time to disperse in the plasma membrane.

Increasing the alcohol concentration will make the solution less polar, which will gradually disrupt the integrity of the cell membrane of the beet root, which consists of a lipid bilayer whose integrity strongly depends on its interaction with surrounding water molecules. It is predicted that the higher the concentration, the more the light