What is pH and why is it important

In this article  we're going to learn complete information about  at what is pH and why is it important with enzymes .

so pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity of a substance or a solution now basicity another word for that one is alkaline .

PH Ranges

So you may read this in your textbooks and all it means is basic most of the food that we actually eat is acidic . Now this here is a pH scale it ranges from zero which is very very acidic to 14 which is more alkaline 7 is neutral .

So the pH of 7 is neutral and generally that's the pH of water so our stomach produces very strong acids that acid actually helps start to digest our foods this acid helps us to digest,  but also it kills harmful microorganisms that we eat from our food .

Our blood has a pH of 7.4 that's so that's quite neutral and very similar to water one of the few foods that we eat that is basic is baked beans and we all know the results of that you may produce a little bit more gas and that's because of the effect that a basic food has on our digestive system ,it doesn't mean that it's bad for us . It's still healthy to eat acids .

Now, what are acids they are substances that have hydrogen ions and they have a pH of lower than 7 so on 

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This scale here pH 7 is neutral so 6 and all the way down to zero zero is the most acidic and 6 is only slightly acidic on this scale here urine is actually slightly acidic at 6 the more hydrogen ions the stronger the acid and acids taste sour now in the laboratory if you do get an acid on your skin it's very important to wash it off especially if it's a strong acid acids can burn your skin and you will actually feel it burning into you the best way to get rid of an acid is to wash it or dilute it with water examples of acids

we've got vinegar and we do we put vinegar on our salad so it's still healthy to eat and find for us to eat

citrus fruits and coca-cola bases now bases are substances that have hydroxide ions or Oh H o being oxygen H being hydrogen and have a pH of greater than 7 

so again 7 is neutral but 8 to 14 this one here 14 is very very basic so extremely strong the more hydroxide ions the stronger the base now bases taste bitter and they feel slippery,  so say for example if you get a base or an alkaline solution on your skin it's very important to wash it off 

even if you're wondering if you do the reason why is because you won't feel it on your skin acids you can feel on your skin you feel it burn but bases turn your skin into soap .

so it's very important to wash the base off with water examples of bases now bleach as you can see  bleach has a pH of 13 so it's very basic ammonia is another one you need to be careful with this one it is a household product but if you put your nose over it it can actually burn all the nose hairs in your nose and even burn down your throat most cleaning products are basic so it includes soaps that you wash your hands with but they won't be as strong as the cleaning products the acidity or alkalinity of the environment is also important for enzymes and their functioning . 

This is measured from 0 to 14 as I've just said so again a recap substances that are 7 are neutral a pH rating of 0 to 6 means a substance is acidic and a pH reading of 8 to 14 means a substance is alkaline.

Enzymes work best with a narrow pH range any variation above or below a specific level reduces their rate of activity as  the pH for pepsin.

Pepsin works best at around the level of two so it's a very acidic pH whereas an optimum pH for trypsin .

Trypsin works at around about six to seven levels of alkalinity or acidity outside the optimum .

pH for an enzyme have a similar effect to that of temperature change they alter the enzymes shape and therefore they alter the functioning of the enzyme , they will denature within cells most enzymes function at or near neutral pH but enzymes in the digestive tract function in an acidic or alkaline environment, so this enzyme here may represent trypsin at pepsin .

This is because it's pH is around about two now this pink enzyme here may represent amylase amylase can work at around about six point five to seven so the protein . Digestive enzyme renin which is found in gastric juice in the stomach function best at a strong acid. Now renin you will probably use this in biology renan's role in digestion is to curdle or coagulate milk so what it's actually doing is in the stomach it's turning a milk a liquid into a solid the purpose of this is so that you're able to absorb all the nutrients in that solid if it were to stain as a liquid. 

The liquid would pass through the body and you wouldn't be able to absorb the proteins and nutrients from the milk a commercial form of renin is called rennet now that is using manufacturing

cheese so cheese is actually curdled milk so when you actually get milk as a liquid you can add rennet and enzyme and it curdles milk to form a solid and we can make cheese in the process pepsin is a very powerful enzyme and it digests proteins in the stomach .

Now it the  proteins that it digests are meat eggs seeds or dairy products and it breaks them down into peptides these peptides are absorbed from the intestine to the bloodstream or broken down further by pancreatic enzymes such as trypsin pepsin is released in the stomach in its inactive form.

So pepsin  is inactive with hydrochloric acid which is released by the stomach it's turned into pepsinogen pepsinogen is able is the active form and it's able to break down the proteins into the peptides.  so it's optimal pH is around pH 2 .why do you think this is have a think press pause the reason why its pH is around 2 is because the stomach's pH is around about 1.5 to 3 it changes and fluctuates so the enzyme is library amylase which is in your saliva it breaks down starch and its function is to best work in a weak acid condition .

.so its pH is around 6 point 7 so that's the weak acid but it can also range up to pH 7 which is sort of neutral the action of amylase on starch stops when the food passes into the stomach this is because the low pH of the gastric juice actually makes it inactive so the amylase cannot work or perform its function .

with a pH of 1.5 to 3 as the stomach is extremes of pH like temperature cause the enzymes to denature for example in a mammalian stomach the conditions are very acidic with the pH between 1.5 and 2 the enzymes involved in chemical digestion in the stomach work best in acidic conditions found there these enzymes stopped working when the food again moves through to the next stage which is the small intestine that again changes the pH and the acidic the acidic conditions become more alkaline of sevenpoint five to eight point eight pH okay .

This concludes our pH and enzyme  activity you

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