Polyphenol Oxidase Lab Report

The purpose of this lab is understanding the use of the spectrophotometer and using the Beer’s Lambert Law (A=Ecl) in relation to the enzyme activity and how Polyphenol Oxidase and combine results in enzymatic browning and how different set of conditions like temperature, pH, or salt affect the result of the reactions. Polyphenol Oxidase is an enzyme that is commonly found in many plants and fungi and is responsible for enzymatic browning. For example, in potatoes it will not only cause a color or appearance of the product to change, but also their nutritional values (Ali and El-Gizawy et al, 2016). Over-exposing of PPO with the oxygen in the environment can cause elevated levels of enzymatic browning in fruits like apples (Mayer 2006.) It is very evident that this issue of enzymatic browning plays a huge role in the agricultural industry and in our food resources hence many studies have been conducted. When Polyphenol Oxidase (PPO) interreacts oxygen, is used to react with various substrates

We used four test tubes later labeled A, B, C and D. The dilution factors for each of the test tubes with respect to the original enzyme extract were 1 in 5, 1in 10, 1 in 20 and 1 in 40. The enzyme extract was held inside an ice beaker to preserve its integrity and function. Furthermore, we put 1.6 mL of extract and 6.4 mL of buffer in test tube A with 2.5mL of buffer into test tube B. Then we took 2.5mL of solution from test tube B, mixed it with 2.5 mL of the buffer and put that new solution in test tube C. From there we took 2.5mL of solution from test tube C and mixed it with an equal amount of buffer and put the new mixture in test tube D. After the main test tubes were made, we warmed up the spectrophotometer (which takes around 10 to 15 minutes) and set the wavelength at