Title: The Effect of Temperature on Pectinase Enzyme Activity and Juice Production from Applesauce. Introduction: This experiment is going to test the effectiveness of the Pectinase enzyme in different temperatures, to see which produces the most juice from the applesauce. Applesauce is made up of crushed apples and apples are made up of cells. Cell walls contain pectin, and pectinase breaks down pectin. This experiment will indirectly measure how well the enzyme works by how much juice is produced. Pectinase is an enzyme that breaks down pectin, a polysaccharide substrate found in the cell wall of plants, into simple sugars and galacturonic acid (Biology Online, 2008). An enzyme is molecule (made up of proteins) that speeds up the rate of …show more content…
The beakers and graduated cylinders were each labeled with what temperature to be incubated at, and which one was the control. 50 ml of Food Club Unsweetened Applesauce were then poured into each of the five labeled beakers. Then 1 gram of pectinase was measured and put into each of the labeled beakers, except for the control beaker which has no pectinase. Starting with the control beaker, each solution was stirred with a glass stir rod. The glass stir rod was cleaned between stirring each solution. One beaker was placed on a hot plate at 100℃, one beaker was placed in a water bath at 30℃, one beaker was place in the freezer at 1℃, and then two beakers (the control beaker and one with pectinase) were left at the lab station at room temperature about 20℃. After 15 minutes each solution was stirred with a glass stir rod. The stir rod was cleaned between stirring each solution. After another 15 minutes the beakers were brought back to the lab station and match with the appropriate labeled graduated cylinders. Each graduated cylinder had a funnel with a coffee filter. Each beaker of applesauce was poured into the coffee filtered funnel on top of the appropriate labeled graduated cylinder. After 10 minutes the amount of juice that was collected was recorded