The Effect of Alcohol Concentration on the Leakage of Pigment from Essay

The Effect of Alcohol Concentration on the Leakage of Pigment from Beetroot Cells - Essay Example The cell membrane is made up of phospholipids molecules and proteins. The phospholipids are present as a bilayer and that acts as the semi permeable membrane. The phospholipid bi-layer is formed because of the hydrophilic and the hydrophobic ends of the phospholipid molecule. The water loving hydrophilic head is present in the inner region of the membrane and the hydrophobic water hating tail region is present on the outer membrane region. This arrangement prevents the polar solutes from moving in and out of the membrane. This arrangement generally allows the passive diffusion of the hydrophobic molecules. The entire membrane is held intact because of the non-covalent interaction of the hydrophobic tails with a little fluidity.The betalains pigment of beet root is sequestered in the vacuole of the beet root cells. When the membrane condition is altered because of temperature variation, pH variations, the membrane becomes weak and loses its pigment content. The phospholipid bi-layer is soluble in an organic solvent. Ethanol is the most common organic s olvent. When ethanol is used for the extraction of the pigment from the beetroot, it dissolves the phosphor lipid bi layer and thus makes the membrane permeable. The betalains thus diffuses out of the membrane due to the concentration gradient. As this is a water soluble pigment, it results in the color of the solution. The intensity of the red-purple color in the solution will indicate the diffusivity level of the pigment. Hence the effect of concentration of ethanol may increase the color of the solution. This is a predictive hypothesis. The predictive hypothesis will give a tentative answer to the question that is under the investigation. (faculty.uca.edu). So the experiment was designed such that the independent variable ethanol is applied to the experimental group and it is controlled in the control group. According to our hypothesis, the control group had 0% ethanol and the experimental group had