Ceanna, Kristina, Sarah & Roberts Catalase Experiment (Bi 101 Lab, Wed.

10:30)

What Vegetable has more Catalase Activity, Cucumber or Jalapeno Pepper?

If the cucumber and pepper were grown in similar environments, cucumber will have more catalase activity because cucumber metabolizes carbon at a very fast rate, which implies more cell activity than the pepper, which metabolizes carbon at a slower rate than the cucumber.

I.

Preparing the Enzyme Catalase a. Cut the Cucumber into small chunks and set them aside. b. Cut the Jalapeno Pepper into small chunks and set them aside. c. Blend 100 grams of cucumber, along with 100 ml of water and a small amount of crushed ice (if available) in the high-speed blender provided in lab i. Once well blended, pour the mix into a 250 ml beaker. d. Repeat step c. with the Jalapeno Pepper chunks that were previously cut and set aside. e. Store the vegetable extracts on ice if ice is available, otherwise this experiment will attempt to find results with enzymes at room temperature.

II.

Creating different concentrations of Substrate a. Obtain 12 clean assay vials and label them with the following hydrogen peroxide concentrations (substrate %): % substrate 0% .125% .25% .5% 1% ml of 1% Hydrogen Peroxide 0 1 1 2 4 +ml of distilled water 4 7 3 2 0

Ceanna, Kristina, Sarah & Roberts Catalase Experiment (Bi 101 Lab, Wed. 10:30)

3%

4 ml of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide

b. Dilute the substrate using clean plastic pipettes and make 2 (reason for 12 assay vials) of each solution. This will help to get more accurate results when trying to see how well the cucumber catalase works in comparison to the Jalapeno catalase. III. Performing the Experiment a. Obtain a large amount of small paper discs by using a hole puncher and some Whatman #1 filter paper. b. Using forceps, dip a paper disc into the cucumber catalase and let soak for about 2 seconds. c. Dab the paper disc on a paper towel. d. Slowly drop the enzyme soaked disc into the first concentration of substrate (this should be the 0%, which is also the control). e. Start a stop-watch as soon as the disc is completely submerged in the solute and stop the time as soon as the disc lifts completely off the bottom of the assay vial. f. Repeat steps b. through e. for the remaining 5 concentrations of solute and then start the process over for the Jalapeno Pepper using the other 6 unused assay vials of the substrate. IV. Chart the Data

Ceanna, Kristina, Sarah & Roberts Catalase Experiment (Bi 101 Lab, Wed. 10:30)