Cell Membrane Permeability Case Study

The principal objective of this study was to understand how cell membranes are able to store pigments in their intracellular compartments which then prevents the pigments from entering the general cytoplasm using different concentrations of a solution which in this case was detergent (Huber, et al., 2018).Several slices of Beetroot were immersed in water and three different concentrations of Tween 20.It was then hypothesized that Higher concentrations of Tween 20 will increase the cell membrane permeability of Beetroot. The results were not consistent with the hypothesis and it was shown that with different concentrations of the detergent (Tween 20), the cell membrane permeability increased in the control and then followed the hypothesis pattern in the other concentration of the

The Beetroot contains a red pigment known as betanin. This pigment was first discovered by schudel in the year 1918. They are classified under one of the two categories of betalains; Betacyanins and They are the most common in the plant kingdom. Betanin has also been classified as an anthocyanin related to the pigments of the petals of many flowering plants but different from typical anthocyanins because it contains nitrogen (Pucher, et al., 1937). The absorbance of this red pigment; betanin was tested in this lab in relation to the membrane permeability of the beet plant. For a cell membrane to be known as permeable, it means that it has the ability to let a fluid or liquid or even gas to pass through it. A cell membrane could be selectively permeable if it only allows certain molecules to pass through it by a process known as active transport. This process requires energy to move the molecules through the cell. This is why it is important to study how certain concentrations affect the permeability of the cell in question because it leads back to the process of osmosis. Osmosis is popularly defined as the diffusion (movement