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Albumen and pepsin

Pepsin is a protease enzyme, which is found in your stomach. It digests protein like albumen egg.

Rates of enzyme-catalysed reactions depend on pH and temperature. The optimum temperature is between 30^o and 40^oC because the average human body temperature is 37^oC. The optimum pH is the acidic one because your stomach has an acidic pH.

You are going to do two types of experiment:

1. The effect of temperature on an enzyme reaction. You are going to look at the same reaction at different temperatures: 10^o, 35^o and 60^oC.
2. The effect of pH on an enzyme reaction. You are going to look at the same reaction at different pH levels: 4, 7 and 10.

To measure whether the reaction takes place, you can use the Colorimeter (it is difficult with a light sensor because at the end of the reaction, the pepsin forms a deposit at the bottom of the flask which prevents the light from passing through). This Logbook (CM) can measure the transmission, and so the turbidity of the solution. If the pepsin digests the protein, the mixture becomes transparent.

View and/or download the worksheet

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View and/or download the Datadisc file examples of this investigation.

    10ºC           

    40ºC

    70ºC

    pH4.5

    pH7

    pH10

(you must have Datadisc installed to view the file, downloadable from

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