The primary purpose of this experiment was to find how enzymes affect the reaction rate. During the experiment, factors such as: amount of enzyme, substrate concentration, and pH were tested to find a correlation with enzyme activity. Enzymes, which in the experiment was peroxidase extracted from turnip, are protein catalysts that break up the substrate, which in this experiment was hydrogen peroxide. If there is a correlation between the environmental factors, there should be an optimal condition were the reaction occurs the fastest or an observable trend towards faster reaction; at the same time, there might be conditions that might be adverse to the reaction that might denature the enzyme.
If there is a correlation between …show more content…
Unfavorable conditions for enzyme activity seems to be away from the peak, the most optimal point: concentrations less than 3% and more than 6%. This was close to my prediction but since we do not know the exact point of most optimal concentration, the prediction is inconclusive.
For pH, the optimal range seems to be within pH5 and pH7 represented by the trend from Graph 6 expressing reaction rate for each pH. Unfavorable conditions for enzyme activity much like the substrate concentration seems to be away from the peak: pH’s less than pH5 and more than pH7. This was close to my prediction but since we do not know the exact point of the most optimal pH, the prediction is inconclusive.
Other peroxidases from various plant sources such as cabbage or tobacco have different optimal ranges than radish peroxidase (Bania). Shown from the reference material figure 1 (Bania), tobacco’s optimal pH was more towards pH7. Also for temperature, cabbage peroxidase seems to have optimal temperature bit higher than the radish optimal temperature. How the rate changes according to changes in these conditions also differed. Cabbage peroxidase seems to react better at 70C than the other two peroxidases (Bania) but decreases at a similar rate for going into lower temperatures from the optimal