Beetroot Membrane Permeability Study

A study on the effect of concentration of ethanol on beetroot membrane permeability.

Background info:
Membrane permeability is the state of membrane that allows liquids or gasses pass through it. Temperature, pH and concentration of alcohol are 3 factors that affect the membrane permeability of any cell. In the beetroot plant, the red or purple pigment that is located in the vacuole, which is embedded to the membrane, is called bectacyanin or betalain. Betalains are soluble in water, therefore it remains in the vacuole if its healthy. However, if the integrity of the membrane is interrupted, the vacuole will spill out the pigments into the surrounding environment and that is an indication that the cell is dead. Alcohol is a hypotonic solution

Then to 25% and to 12.5% and finally to 6.25% To test its impact on the integrity of the membrane
Dependent Variable Change in absorbance Absorbance was measured using colorimeter by taking a sample of ethanol To measure the absorbance of ethanol

Controlled Variable Temperature ( 37 Celsius) Use water bath of 37 Celsius temperature. Accuracy Time
1 hour the beetroot cores were put in a distilled water for 10 minutes to make sure all the pigments that are released due to the plasma membrane damage are washed away.

Total time for trials is 1 hour.
The measurements are taken every 10 minutes. To measure the accurate time when the membrane will break Size and type of the beetroot
(size of beetroot) Used the same beetroot for the entire experiment.
By using the cork borer and the ruler we ensured that each beetroot core has the same diameter and length. (check the diameter of the cork borer) Fair experiment (accuracy) Volume of ethanol
(10ml) 10 ml of ethanol solution was used for each experiment (except tube 1 for 100% ethanol concentration 20ml was used) Pipette is used for accurate