Procedure to Investigate the Effect of Temperature on Beetroot

Aim: to investigate the effect of temperature on the cell membrane structure.

Hypothesis: I predict that more concentration of betalains will be released as the temperature increases because the temperature will soften the cell vacuole and cell membrane allowing more betalains to pass through.

Introduction: Beetroot contains red pigments called betalains, located within the cell vacuole. Normally the pigments cannot pass through the membranes but they can leak out when the beetroot is cooked. To function correctly a cell needs to be able to control transport across the partially permeable membrane.

Safety: you have to be careful of scalding yourself as this experiment involves hot water. The water bath is plugged in to electricity so there is a risk of being electrocuted. Also the boiling tubes are made from glass so you have to because that they don’t break as fragments may enter your body. The scalpel used to cut the beetroot is very sharp so handle carefully as you can cut someone with it.

Equipment:

- Raw beetroot – it is more effective to use raw beetroot to get accurate readings

- Ruler- to measure the size of the beetroot tubes.

- Size 4 white tile

- Scalpel

- Water baths at 40,50,60 oc

- 10 ml measuring cylinder- to measure the hydrogen peroxide

- 1 boiling tube racks

- Distilled water

- Pipette

- Ice cubes

- Thermometer one per bath- to measure if the water baths’ temperature fluctuates.

- Colorimeter – to accurately measure the colour absorbency.

- Cuvettes

- stop clock

Method:

1. Gather all your equipment and carefully cut sections from a single beetroot using a ruler to measure 1 cm.

2. cut eight 1 cm length slices from these sections

3. fill the boiling tubes using 5...

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...rbance reading. The graph constructed is a line graph to show continuous data. The graph shows that at the warmest temperature gives the highest absorbency reading.

Evaluation

The limitations were that we could only hold the experiment with these temperatures. To make our results more accurate we could have used a wider range or temperatures. Also the water bath’s temperature fluctuated through out many occasions during the experiment. To eliminate this from occurring I should have put a thermometer in the water bath. The beetroots were all different ages and sizes. To eliminate this from occurring I could have accurately measured the beetroot more accurately. We ensured that our results obtained reliable by repeating it six times and took an average. An increase in temperature denatured the membrane which allowed a high concentration of betalians to leak out