Chemistry

INTRODUCTION.

In this experiment we observe the action of enzyme named amylase on starch. Enzymes are proteins that catalyze (that is, increase or decrease the rates of) chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called substrates, and they are converted into different molecules, called the products. Almost all processes in a biological cell need enzymes to occur at significant rates. Since enzymes are selective for their substrates and speed up only a few reactions from among many possibilities, the set of enzymes made in a cell determines which metabolic pathways occur in that cell Amylase speeds up the breakdown of long chain starch molecules Enzymes are proteins that are critical to catalyzing reactions (Brooker, Widmaier, Graham & Stiling, 2011). Like most proteins, they are synthesized by the ribosomes in the cell. They react with a specific substrate in order to increase the rate of a chemical reaction within the cell. Without enzymes, reactions would be significantly slower and we would not be able to do the most basic functions, such as breathing or digesting food. Amylase is a type of enzyme. Amylase has an active site organized in sub sites, each of which accommodates a glucose residue (Talamond, Noirot & de Kochko, 2005). It breaks down starch to glucose, giving food that sweet taste. An example of amylase in the natural world is in bananas. When they are green, the amylase has yet to break down the starch, but by the time they’ve turned brown, the reaction has been completed. This is why brown bananas taste sweeter than their green counterpart. Within this experiment, the objective was to test how temperature, pH level and enzyme concentration changed the effectiveness of amylase. In general amylase change starch into simpler form, one example of sugar maltose which is soluble in water. Amylase is present in our saliva and begins to act in starch in our food while still in our mouth....