Gio Garcia

4th Period
Kamala Wood
12/7/2016

Effect of Temp. on Enzyme (potato)

A catalase is a common enzyme found in nearly all living organisms exposed to oxygen.
It catalyzes the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen. It is a very important
enzyme in protecting the cell from oxidative damage by reactive oxygen species. The purpose of
the experiment that was performed was to find the optimal temperature for a catalase as well as
solidify the theory of an enzyme denaturing after its temperature has been raised. My theory was
that the potato (our enzyme) will begin to denature at a temperature of 27 and that its optimal
temperature will be room temperature.

For this experiment the materials that were needed were a potato, a knife, a ruler, pen and
pare, an incubator, a thermometer, a 100mL graduated cylinder, a 10mL graduated cylinder and
Hydrogen Peroxide.
Procedure
1. Prepare all of your materials.
2. Take your potato and knife and cut pieces approximately 3 cm x 1 cm x 1 cm at least 3-9
times (depends on amount of tests)
3. Place 1 potato piece in the incubator, set at 21.5 for 3 minutes
4. In the meantime, measure out 4mL of Hydrogen Peroxide into the 10mL Graduated
Cylinder
5. Take out the Potato piece after the 3 minutes
6. Place the warmed potato piece into the 100mL Graduated Cylinder
7. Get eye-level to the cylinder to get ready to record the amount of volume the foaming
takes up

8. Add the Hydrogen Peroxide (4mL) to the 100mL Graduated Cylinder

9. Record how high the foam rises in mL on the Graduated Cylinder
10. Subtract how high the foam rises by how much volume the potato piece takes up
(remember Volume = Length x Width x Height)
11. Deduce the effects of the heat on foam-amount by inserting the levels and results into a
line-graph
12. Repeat this twice more to ensure proper recording of the experiment at the same
temperature.
13. Repeat Steps 3-12 again at the different temperatures of (25, and 35)
14. Place all data into a bar/line graph
15. Deduce the effects of heat on the enzyme activity (in this case, foaming)

Effect of Temperature of Potato() on the Volume of Foam (in cm3)

Temperature ()

Volume of Foam (cm3)

Trial 1

21.5

6cm3

27

2cm3

36

5cm3

The original purpose of this experiment was to:

A. Solidify the theory that enzymes will begin denaturing at either very hot or very cold
temperatures.
B. Find the optimal temperature of an enzyme by seeing the effect the temperature has on
the catalase.

The results that we had found were that the catalase worked at an optimal rate at a temperature of
21.5 (room temp.) and began the process of denaturing at 27 thus supporting my theory,
surprisingly the catalase started functioning again at 36. Though our group had not been able
to get the temperature exact, we had it set at a reasonably similar temperature. My theory was
only partially supported by the results, with the results showing that the catalase had started to
stop working at its optimum at a temperature of 27. The results had also contravened my
theory showing that the catalase had begun functioning again at 36. This experiment could
have been improved in a few ways, perhaps we couldve left the pieces of potato stay in the
incubator a little bit longer so as to have it at the exact temperature as well as not letting the piece
cool down even the slightest by having the piece put into the graduated cylinder right away.
Another way we couldve improved the experiment was by timing how long the catalase showed
any signs of activity (foam).