Cabbage Essay

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The red cabbage, scientific name: Brassica oleracea var. capitata f. rubra, is also known as purple cabbage. The cabbage is known by this name due to its dark red/purple leaves. It can be found in China, Northern Europe and throughout America. The red cabbage needs sufficient humidity and fertilised soil for it to grow. Red cabbages are planted in spring and harvested in the autumn. This plant changes colour according to the pH level of the soil; the plant contains a pigment flavin (anthocyanins). If the soil is acidic, the plant leaves will be reddish; an alkaline soil will make the plant leaves a green-yellow colour and a neutral soil will make the plant leaves purple. The juice of the purple cabbage can be used as a home-made pH indicator. Acidic solutions have more hydrogen (H+) ions therefore they can donate more H+ ions; whereas basic solutions have less H+ ions and they accept the ions, neutral solutions have an equal amount of H+ ions and HCl- ions (Hoefnagels 2012).
The purple liquid indicator will change colour according to the varying pH levels of different acidic and basic/alkaline solutions.
To determine the pH levels in acids and bases of household solutions/powders.
Three cups of cabbage was chopped into small pieces using a knife. Once the cabbage was chopped, it was then placed in a big, clear glass dish. Tap water was put on to boil in a kettle; once boiled, the water was then poured over the cabbage in the glass dish till all the cabbage was covered. The boiled water and cabbage were left to stand for 10 minutes until the water from the cabbage turned purple. The cabbage pieces were strained using a strainer in order to obtain the indicator. Eight clear glass cups were filled with 60 ml each of the red cabbage ...

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...cessities in our life because it can be used to balance and protect our bodies, it is used in various foods and it can be used as cleaning materials. If a child swallows a harmful acid such as Hydrochloric acid (HCl), an emergency medical care number must be called immediately and the child must be given milk if no symptoms such as vomiting or convulsion is shown. If no symptoms are showing, the water or milk will help to bring the body’s pH back to a manageable level.
The colour of the acidic solution turned a reddish-pink indicating a low pH whereas the colour of the alkaline solution turned blue-green indicating a high pH, the colour of the solution with an addition of water remained the same, and therefore the hypothesis is supported. The experiment can be improved by using pH strips to get the actual pH value thus allowing the experiment to be more accurate.

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