1. What is the biochemical relevance of pH?

The pH is an important quantity that reflects the chemical conditions of a solution.

The pH is very relevant because all of the biological processes are dependent on it.

The biochemical relevance of pH is that it can control the availability of nutrients,

biological functions, microbial activity, and the behavior of chemicals. Also, since

pH is important in homeostatic processes, cells and organisms must maintain a

specific and constant pH in order to keep their enzymes in the optimum state of

protonation.

2. What is/are the buffer system(s) in the following and discuss how this/these

work(s)?

A. Urine

The two buffer systems of Urine are phosphate and ammonia, in which phosphate

is responsible for most titratable acidity and ammonia is important in the formation of

NH4+ and hence excretion of H+. In the urine, phosphate is the primary urinary

buffer in normal conditions. Phosphate is also the most important buffer in the urine

because its pKa is relatively close to the pH of glomerular filtrate and because the

concentration of phosphate increases 20 fold. On the other hand, during acidosis, The

role of phosphate is limited as it’s secretion is not regulated by kidney but is dietary

dependent, in such conditions, ammonia is the important buffer.

B. Whole blood

The whole blood contains 4 buffer systems that are categorized into 2, the major

buffer systems and the minor buffer systems. The major buffer systems includes

bicarbonate buffer system and hemoglobin. While the minor buffer systems includes

phosphate buffer systems and plasma proteins. Bicarbonate buffer systems in the
blood works when any acidic substance enters the bloodstream, the bicarbonate ions

neutralize the hydronium ions forming carbonic acid and water. Next, as

a buffer, hemoglobin counteracts any rise in blood pH by releasing H+ ions from a

number of atomic sites throughout the molecule. On the other hand, the phosphate

buffer consists of phosphoric acid (H3PO4) in equilibrium with

dihydrogen phosphate ion (H2PO4-) and H+. The pK for the phosphate buffer is 6.8,

which allows this buffer to function within its optimal buffering range at

physiological pH. Lastly, plasma proteins, the charged regions of these molecules can

bind hydrogen and hydroxyl ions, and thus function as buffers. Buffering by proteins

accounts for two-thirds of the buffering power of the blood and most of the buffering

within cells.

C. Milk

The two most important buffer components of milk are caseins, the buffer

maximum near pH 4.6, and phosphate, the buffer maxima near pH 7.0. The buffer

maximum near pH 5.0 is extremely important to cheese manufacture because the

optimum pH for most cheese is in the range of 5.0 - 5.2. As the pH of cheese is

reduced towards pH 5.0 by lactic acid fermentation, the buffer capacity is increasing

(i.e., each incremental decrease in pH requires more lactic acid). The effect is to give

the cheese maker considerable room for variation in the rate and amount of acid

production. Without milk's built in buffers it would be impossible to produce cheese

in the optimum pH range.