06-02-2013, 09:44 AM
A Juicy Project: Extracting Apple Juice with Pectinase
Abstract
Do you know why enzymes are oftentimes called the workhorses of biochemistry? It's because they can speed up a wide variety of chemical reactions, and chemists and biologists use enzymes to do all kinds of jobs. In this project, pectinase, an enzyme frequently used in the food industry, will be used to extract juice from apples.
Objective
The goal of this project is to monitor enzyme activity by measuring the amount of apple juice released by pectinase.
Credits
Andrew Olson, Ph.D., Science Buddies
Introduction
Enzymes are the workhorses of biochemistry. Enzymes are proteins that catalyze (speed up) specific chemical reactions—increasing reaction rates by factors of at least a million.
Pectinase is an enzyme that catalyzes the breakdown of pectin, a component of the cell wall in fruits such as apples and oranges. Pectinase is used commercially to aid in extracting juice from fruit. By enzymatically breaking down the cell wall, pectinase releases the juice from within the cells. Pectinase is also used for clarifying the extracted juice.
In this project, you can apply pectinase to fruit under controlled experimental conditions in order to investigate the enzyme activity of pectinase. You can monitor the enzyme activity by measuring how much juice is produced under the various experimental conditions. Some possible conditions to investigate are duration of enzyme treatment, enzyme concentration, and temperature.
Terms and Concepts
To do this project, you should do research that enables you to understand the following terms and concepts:
• pectin,
• plant cell wall,
• enzymes,
• substrate,
• pectinase,
• cellulase,
• amylase.
Questions
• What is the source of pectinase enzyme?
• How does pectinase promote the release of juice from apples?
• What are the substrates for the enzymes cellulase and amylase? Do you think that these enzymes would increase juice production?