Discussion: The cells of living organisms are the site of metabolic reactions.

These reactions do
not occur by spontaneous means. They occur by catalysis. Catalysis is defined as the acceleration
of a chemical reaction by some substance which itself undergoes no permanent chemical change.
The catalysts of biochemical reactions are enzymes and are responsible for bringing about almost
all of the chemical reactions in living organisms. Without enzymes, these reactions take place at
a rate far too slow for the pace of metabolism. Enzymes are able to catalyze reactions by binding
to substrates, forming enzyme-substrate complexes, after which it converts them into products.
There are several factors that affect enzyme activity. These include enzyme concentration,
substrate concentration, temperature and pH. Temperature is the factor of interest in this
experiment. Enzymes are very specific. Enzymes have an optimum temperature, this is the
temperature at which they work most rapidly. Below the optimum temperature, increasing
temperature will increase the rate of the reaction. This is because temperature increases the
kinetic energy of the system, effectively increasing the number of collisions between the
substrate and the enzyme’s active site. Temperatures above the optimum will lead to
denaturation. This occurs because the hydrogen bonds and disulphide bridges which maintain the
shape of the active site are broken. Thus, enzyme substrate complexes can no longer be formed.
In this experiment the effect of temperature on catalase activity in potato was assessed using
hydrogen peroxide, at high temperature (boiled), medium temperature (room temperature and
very low temperature (cold). The foam height was used as an indication of enzyme activity.

The results obtained in the experiment showed that the sample that was room temperature gave
the highest foam height of 1.6cm and also the fastest reaction whereas, the sample that was
boiled gave the lowest foam height of 0cm and gave no reaction. The sample that was cold was
intermediate with a foam height of 1.3cm. For enzymes to catalyze a reaction they have to
make contact with the substrate molecules. The more contact that is made the faster the reaction
will be. Kinetic energy is the energy that allow things to move and it has a direct relation to
temperature. The higher the temperature the higher the kinetic energy. Hence when temperature
is high,kinetic energy is high and so enzyme and substrate molecules collide faster thereby
increasing the rate of reaction. Enzymes are protein and can be denatured by high temperatures
as a result. This is because the tertiary structure of the enzyme will be unraveled and so
substrates can no longer bind to the enzyme, at which point the enzyme is said to be denatured. It
is for these reasons why the boiled sample gave no reading as the enzyme catalase was denatured
before the substrate- hydrogen peroxide was added to it and why the sample at room temperature
gave the highest foam height and the cold one and intermediate reading.

Conclusion: the enzyme catalase performed the best (had the highest foam height) at room
temperature, above and below which, the activity and foam height was less. The lowest foam
height at boiling temperature and intermediate under cold conditions.