Catalase Lab

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In this lab we used different specimens and hydrogen peroxide to figure out the reaction rate for the enzyme catalase in that specimen. There were four different parts to this experiment. Part A consisted of Observing Normal Catalase Reactions. Part B was What Tissues Contain Catalase and Part C was titled What is the Effect of Temperature on Catalase Activity? And our final part was Part D and we found What is the Effect of pH on Catalase Activity. In Part A, Observe Normal Catalase Reaction, we discovered that when we put the liver in the hydrogen peroxide there was a very fast reaction. My group decided we would rate it as a four. There was a lot of bubbles that had formed and the it bubbled up very quickly. With our reaction we couldn't…show more content…
To start off with we boiled water in a beaker, once that was ready we put a piece of liver in a test tube and than placed the test tube in the beaker of boiling water. After having it set for 5 minutes we took the test tube out. While watching the tube in the water the liver began to change colors, from a purply-red color to a whitish-yellow color. It looked as if the boiling water was beginning to dry the piece of liver out, because of the color change and how much the liver shriveled up in the process. I think boiling an enzyme is not a good way to go because it sucked all the oxygen out of the liver, but it also did that really quickly. My grouped ranked the reaction rate at a one because it barely bubbled. Next in this part we had to put a test tube of hydrogen peroxide and a test tube of liver in warm water and another two tubes in an ice bath. After we let those sit for three minutes we took them out and poured the warm hydrogen into the warm liver. As we watched the liver react to the peroxide we found that there was a fast reaction rate. There was a bunch of bubbles and we rated the reaction with a five. Now onto the two cold test tubes. We poured the cold peroxide onto the cold liver and found that there was a slow reaction to the catalase and rated the it with a two. In my group we found that having the catalase being warm is the best temperature for the fastest reaction. The…show more content…
To come to a conclusion I would say having a food that has a high pH would speed up the digestion process compared to a food with a neutral or lower pH. Also I would say that once you eat something the food doesn't break down as fast as it would after its been sitting in your stomach for awhile and is at a warm temperature compared to a hot or cold temperature. I did go back and compare my results with one of my friends that wasn't in my group and the one result they got was a lot off compared to my group. For Part C when we were testing the warm liver my friend came to a conclusion that there was no reaction at all and in my group we had a very fast reaction. I don't really know what could of gone wrong, but there could be a possibility that our water could of been a little colder compared to theirs but other than that thats all I can see as being the error for that test. Another error could also be our measuring of the hydrogen peroxide and the ratio of the size of our tissues compared to the peroxide. I know at times we had very big pieces and didn't have a cutting tool to use so I think some of our pieces could of gotten more hydrogen peroxide because of the size differences. If I were to do this lab again I think what I would want to test more of is Part C. With this part I didn’t really understand if the liver was being dried out because of the hot temperatures and I think I would like to

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