Isolation and Investigation of Catalase - Lab Report Example

The enzymes are also applicable in various fields like medical applications and industrial applications. This report seeks to examine the effects of pH, temperature on the action of catalase enzyme. The change in pH is the degree in which an environment changes either from acidity to alkalinity or from alkalinity to acidity. When the environment becomes so acidic, it may completely inhibit enzymes from facilitating the reactions. The change in pH has an impact on the repulsive forced and the attractive forces and may completely change the shape and the size of the active sites such that the substrate molecules may fail to fit (Siow, 2009).

This inhibits the chemical changes from taking place. The basic groups such as the nitrogen are protonated in an acidic condition and they are deprotonated in an environment that is basic and makes alterations in the electrical attractions that exists between the polar components. Catalase enzyme has an optimum pH value that it operates, beyond which it is inhibited. (Enger, Ross & Bailey, 2012).  When catalase is added to the hydrogen peroxide, a reaction occurs producing oxygen gas. The experiment seeks to investigate the temperature effect on the enzymatic actions by measuring the level of oxygen produced within a given period of time (Vetiska, 2004).

  It is noted that enzymes work best between pH values ranging from 7 to 10 as illustrated in the table above. The rate of reaction increases as the pH increases from 5 to 7, which is a neutral point. As the pH continues to increase from 10 to 12, the rate of reaction starts to decrease and the volume of foam produced decreases. It was seen that as the ph changes from the optimum to alkaline range, the catalase enzymes lose the hydrogen ions (Crofts, 2013). Independent variable is the temperature of the environment, dependable variables is the catalase enzyme, and Constant variables are the time used and the amount of catalase used. The