Essay On Catecholase

Introduction

Our bodies involve and require many different biochemical reactions, which is achieved through the help of enzymes. Enzymes are proteins in our bodies that act as catalyst as they speed up vital biochemical reactions by reducing the “activation energy” needed to get the reaction going. To sustain the biochemistry of life, enzymes maintain temperature inside our living cells balanced and the concentration of reaction molecules. Enzymes are extremely efficient because they remain remarkably unchanged, therefore have the potential to be used over and over again. They are extremely specific with the reactions they catalyze, like a lock and key and, extremely reactive. The molecule to which enzymes make accelerated changes to is the substrate. The molecule that is present after the enzyme-catalyzed reaction is the product. Most enzymes require specific environmental conditions such as temperature and pH levels to be met in order for them to function properly and efficiently. In the first part of the lab we specifically examined a simple enzyme-catalyzed reaction using catechol (the substrate) which will be catalyzed by the enzyme catecholase and will then result in color change. This familiar color

This hypothesis was also based on the results we gathered on Table 1. Our results showed that if there is a high level of acidity, then it would take a very long time for the browning to show. The banana slices #5 and #6 showed us enzymes under two very different pH levels. We added distilled water on to banana slice #5, this puts the enzymes under a pH level of 7 which is a neutral pH. On the other hand we added lemon juice to banana slice #6, this put the enzymes to work under a pH of 4 which is an acidic pH. We noticed that slice#5 browned a lot faster than Slice #6, because it was less