Effects of Amylose on Starch Concentration

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The Effect of Temperature and Amylase Concentration on the Reaction of Starch Gage 11/2/12 Introduction Amylase is an enzyme present in saliva that begins the digestion of food by breaking long chained starch molecules into smaller disaccharides of Maltose. We wish to investigate both the effect that the enzyme concentration and the temperature surrounding the reaction has on the speed at which it the Amylase breaks down starch. We predicted that (1) the reaction would generally speed up as the temperature surrounding the reaction increased, and (2) the reaction would generally speed up as the concentration of the Amylase increased. We reasoned for the former that increased kinetic energy in the reaction would help the Amylase process the starch faster, and for the latter we reasoned that more sites available for the reaction to occur would speed up the reaction. Materials and Methods See attached sheet Results (1)In an attempt to find the relationship between the temperature of the reaction and the speed of the reaction, we measured the rate of the disappearance of color from the amylase/starch solution to indicate how fast the starch was used up. We found that very cold and very hot temperatures caused the reaction of the starch to proceed very slowly, if at all. The reaction that occurred at 37’C occurred the fastest resulting in a normal, or bell shaped curve centered around 37’C, as indicated by the graph below. Temperature in degrees Celsius Temperature in degrees Celsius Rate of Disappearance In Minutes Rate of Disappearance In Minutes (2)In an attempt to find the relationship between Amylase concentration and the speed of the reaction, we measured the rate of the disappearance of color from the amylase/starch solution to indicate how fast the starch was used up. We found that for the lower concentrations of amylase we

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