why does colour leak out of cooked beetroot?

Needed for a practical next week
seriously need help!

Inside the cells is the red pigment that gives it its colour. The pigment molecule is too large to be able to pass across the membrane under normal conditions. However, when you heat the beetroot, the membrane starts to breakdown. The reason for this is that all of the components gain kinetic energy with heat. This has a few effects. The main two are that the actually bilayer is actually a fluid and when heated it becomes more 'runny' as it is like an oil. This makes it a bit 'leaky' to the pigment so that some of it will pass though out into the water you've left the beetroot in. Another reason is because with heat the proteins in the membrane will denature. The heat breaks the hydrogen bonds that hold the finer structures of the protein together and eventually it just unraveled, leaving a hole that the pigment can pass through.


Posted from TSR Mobile