Answer 1:
To tackle the first question, it is necessary
to understand the mechanism behind the browning of
apples. Scientific American has an excellent
article explaining the mechanism,
apples turn brown .
Oxygen reacts with an
enzyme in apples causing the browning. When
you cut into an apple, oxygen in the air reaches
the enzyme and causes it to turn brown.
If you want to slow the browning process, you
need to either prevent oxygen from reaching the
enzyme or make the enzyme less reactive.
Coating the apple in sugar or syrup
minimizes oxygen's ability to reach the enzyme,
slowing down the browning action. If you coat the
apple in something acidic, it makes the enzyme
less reactive. This coating will also slow the
browning process. An edible acid example is
lemon-juice.
Preparing an experiment your self is an
excellent way to understand the browning process.
First, decide which methods I want to test and
find the proper materials. I would test
sugar, syrup, an acidic liquid and a basic liquid.
Cut the apple into five slices or how ever many
methods you want to try. Do not coat one slice;
it will be the control sample. Coat one
sample in sugar, one in syrup, one with lemon
juice (an acidic substance) and one with baking
soda (a basic substance). Record the color of
each slice after 1, 5, 10, 20 and 60 min.
Finally, plot the data according to how brown
the apple was versus time. Following this
experiment or a similar one that your develop will
let you find the best way to prevent apples from
browning.
A word of caution, make sure you only use
edible substances on the apple. Be careful to
prevent the lemon juice from getting into your
eyes.
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