Lab Report: Enzyme Activity

Enzyme Activity

Introduction: In the experiment the object was to find out how the temperature of an enzyme affects the speed and ability of the enzyme to break down sugars or in this case starch.

An enzyme is a protein that has a specific function within the body; therefore each reaction in the body needs a different enzyme to complete the reaction. The reaction in the experiment is using Nutrase to break down starch in to glucose. The body needs sugars to be in the form of a monosaccharide commonly this is glucose. However starch is a polysaccharide and therefore needs to be broken down. This breaking down is known as a catabolic reaction. There are two types of metabolic reactions anabolic and catabolic, anabolic is a reaction that builds up and catabolic breaks down elements. A metabolic reaction is any reaction that happens within the body.

This is what the process of breaking down looks like when enzymes are used:

Polysaccharide Disaccharide Monosaccharide

The reason that enzymes break down food is so that the body can rebuild as well as strengthen itself. Therefore a lack of enzymes in the body can often leave people having trouble digesting food, which means they quickly grow weak since the body does not get the broken down particles it needs to strengthen and rebuild itself.

My predictions for the experiment are that the enzyme will break down the most starch in the shortest time. The 11°C specimen should slowly break the enzymes down and therefore show a light blue color. Lastly the two other specimens should not break down any starch since the enzymes should be denatured by the time they are placed in the solution.

What is the effect of temperature on the rate of the breakdown of starch observed by Iodine coloring with the enzyme?

Constant: The constants of the experiment are the amount of starch solution, the amount of iodine solution placed in the starch solution, as well as the temperature of the two above; the amount of enzyme place in the solution, and lastly the container size remained the same through the whole experiment.

Independent Variable: The independent variable, the element we purposely changed, is the temperature of the enzyme.

Dependent Variable: The dependent variable, the effect of the changed