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Enzyme Lab Report

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This was a very interesting and complicated lesson for me. I have reread it over and over again and researched it on various different websites to try and get it to sink in visually in my mind.
Enzymes are proteins that allow certain chemical reactions to take place much quicker than the reactions would occur on their own. Enzymes function as catalysts, which mean that they speed up the rate at which metabolic processes and reactions occur in living organisms. Usually, the processes or reactions are part of a cycle, with separate reactions at each step. Each step of the cycle usually requires a specific enzyme. Without the specific enzyme to catalyze a reaction, the cycle cannot be completed. The result of an uncompleted cycle is the lack of …show more content…

At each step, specific enzymes break down different types of foods.
As enzymes begin digesting food in the mouth and continue to do the same in the stomach, plant enzymes also become active. The food then enters the upper portion of the small intestine where the pancreas provides pancreatic enzymes to further break down food. The final breakdown of remaining small molecules of food occurs in the smaller lower intestine. Ideally, the different types of enzymes work together to help digest food and deliver nutrients to cells to maintain their health.
Enzymes do not change during reactions; neither do they change the other contents of the reaction.
They just speed up the rate at which all parts of the reaction react. Some enzymes help make new substances in the body and others help break down unwanted substances in the body. Enzymes not only speed up reactions they also make sure that the reactions happen at the right time and right place. Enzymes are substances that make life possible. They are needed for every chemical reaction that takes place in the human body. Without enzymes, not activity at all would take …show more content…

Starch is broken into disaccharides each of which has a specific enzyme on the brush border to split it. The disaccharides and their corresponding enzymes are, maltose (maltase), isomaltose
(isomaltase), sucrose (sucrase), and lactose (lactase). The monosaccharides produced are glucose, fructose and galactose.
Monosaccharides are the only way in which carbohydrate can be absorbed. If these monosaccharides are stuck together in pairs, so-called disaccharides, such as sucrose, they cannot be absorbed. Neither can polysaccharides a long chain of monosaccharides stuck together such as starch. These poly and disaccharides are dependent on enzymes on the brush border for their final digestion and absorption.
If there are no enzymes to digest them, there is no absorption and instead these di and polysaccharides become available for fermentation by micro-organisms in the gut. Fermentation produces toxins as well as symptoms of wind, gas, bloating and gurgling. The best example of this problem is lactose intolerance - inability to digest lactose (milk sugar) which can cause bloating, pain and diarrhea. Often a temporary lactose intolerance arises following gastroenteritis.

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