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Determining the Optimal Temperature and Ph of Barley Amylase Essay

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Determining the Optimal Temperature and PH of Barley Amylase

Abstract
The purpose of this experiment was to find the optimal temperature and pH of barley alpha-amylase. I hypothesize that the optimal temperature would be 55 degrees Celsius and the optimal pH would be 5.5. In this experiment, the starch is used as a substrate to examine the optimum temperature and pH for the reaction of alpha amylase. It is known that the measuring of disappearance (absorbance) of the substrate starch with iodine using spectrophotometer will show the concentration of the substrate which will also reflect on the reaction rate. Once the reaction rates are figured out, the optimal temperature and pH can be determined. The result concluded that the …show more content…

(Campbell, Reece, 2005) This works same for the optimal pH value for an enzyme. An example of the importance of the relationship between the pH and enzyme would be found in the activities and the functions of pepsin. Pepsin is a digestive enzyme in the stomach that works best at pH 2. If pepsin was located in the area where pH is 6-8, the pepsin would be denatured. Therefore in a reaction, the greatest molecular collisions and the fastest conversions of the reactants to product molecules are at the optimal temperature and pH. (Vliet,2008)
In this experiment, the starch is used as a substrate to examine the properties of the alpha amylase-enzyme’s, harvested commercially form germinating barley seeds, optimum temperature and pH for the reaction of alpha amylase. (Vliet,2008)
Based on the research of MacGregor in 1978, I hypothesize that the optimal temperature of the temperature will be at 55 degrees Celsius and the optimal pH will be at 5.5. According to MacGregor (1978), found the optimum temperature of malted barley alpha-amylase to be 55 degrees Celsius and 5.5 optimum pH.

Materials and Methods
I followed the basic procedure for the temperature lab and the pH lab for the experiment of determining the optimal temperature and pH of barley amylase. First, I set the spectrophotometers to the lmax which determines for the starch/I2KI solution (560 nm).Then, in an Erlenmeyer, add 35 ml starch and 35 ml of distilled

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