Digestive system enzymes

When you eat starchy foods, they are broken down into glucose by enzymes. The process starts in your mouth with the enzyme amylase found in saliva. This explains why, if you chew a piece of bread long enough, it starts to taste sweet The breakdown of starch molecules continues in other parts of the digestive system. Within 1 to 4 hours after eating, all the starch in food is converted into glucose. 

The pancreas is an exocrine gland and an endocrine gland. The exocrine tissue produces a bicarbonate solution and digestive enzymes. These substances are transported to the small intestine where they play a role in the chemical digestion of food. These functions are fully discussed in Chapter 18 on the digestive system. 

Cellulase is not produced in the human digestive system. Cellulolytic enzyme preparations obtained from A. niger or other fungal sources are available, and it is thought that their ingestion may improve overall digestion, particularly in relation to high-fibre diets. 

The problem to be solved with respect to the chemical reactions that constitute metabolism and sustain life is that, without the action of catalysts, they are far too slow. Let s consider the digestion of the proteins themselves, an important constituent of our diet. In an enviromnent similar to that of our digestive system, several tens of thousand years would be required to digest half of the protein content of a typical meal in the absence of a catalyst. Clearly, this will not do. In reality, the stomach secretes one protein catalyst, the enzyme pepsin, and the pancreas secretes several enzymes that catalyze the digestion of proteins. In the presence of these enzymes, dietary proteins are fully digested and reduced to their basic constituents, the amino acids, in a matter of hours. Obviously, these enzymes are enormously potent catalysts." ... 

Both digester systems exhibit extremely low levels of detectable cellulase activities (exoglucanase, endoglucanase, and -glucosidase) when compared to industrial saccharifying processes (See Table III) in which the hydrolysis of cellulose in the feedstock is optimized with respect to enzyme loading. Therefore, the data indicate the level of improvement that may be made to attain maximum rates for cellulose hydrolysis in the anaerobic reactor system. 

The effects of feedstock cellulose content on cellulase enzyme activities in the digester system were examined in multiple laboratory-scale CSTR digesters operated under similar conditions with identical levels of feedstock organic loading (g VS/reactor d) but different levels of cellulose (Solka Floe). In general, all celli se enzyme... 

Hydrolases, which catalyze the hydrolysis of various bonds. The best-known subcategory of hydrolases are the lipases, which hydrolyze ester bonds. In the example of human pancreatic lipase, which is the main enzyme responsible for breaking down fats in the human digestive system, a lipase acts to convert triglyceride substrates found in oils from food to monoglycerides and free fatty acids. In the chemical industry, lipases are also used, for instance, to catalyze the —C N —CONH2 reaction, for the synthesis of acrylamide from acrylonitril, or nicotinic acid from 3-pyridylnitrile. 

It is particularly useful to be able to do this in the case of young animals whose digestive systems are not fully mature. Later in this chapter (section 3.4) the animal-feed enzymes are worked out further. 

Humans do not produce the enzymes, called cellulases, necessary to digest cellulose. Bacteria possessing cellulase inhabit the digestive tracts of animals such as sheep, goats, and cows giving these animals the ability to digest cellulose. Cellulase bacteria also exist in the digestive systems of... 

Garcfa-Carreno, F.L., Herandez-Cortes, M.P., and Haard, N.F. 1994. Enzymes with peptidase and proteinase activity from the digestive systems of freshwater and a marine decapod. J. Agric. Food Chem. 42 1456-1461. 

A different type of covalent regulation of enzyme activity is the enzyme-catalysed activation of inactive precursors of enzymes (zymogens) to give catalytically active forms. The best examples are the digestive enzymes, e.g. trypsin. Proteolytic enzymes would digest the inside of the cells that produce the enzyme, so they are produced in an inactive form which is activated to the true enzyme once they have entered the digestive system of the animal. 

Protein digestion starts in the mouth and continues in your stomach and small intestines. This is due to pepsin, which is secreted in the saliva and obviously the gastric juice, followed by pancreatic enzymes, then absorbed by the mucosal cells in the small intestines. In short, the digestive system breaks down protein into its peptide amino acid structures so they can be absorbed in the small intestine via the... 

Despite the presence of water throughout the body, hydrolysis reactions of esters and amides require enzymes to proceed at an appreciable rate. Numerous enzymes throughout the body carry out hydrolysis reactions. The enzymes, both esterases and amidases, are found in the digestive system, individual cells, and plasma. The exact site of hydrolysis of a specific drug depends on the drug s structure and functionality. The ester in aspirin... 

Any way of administration other than through the digestive system is referred to as parenteral administration. Important parenteral pathways are listed in Table 1 [78]. The local tissue environment differs throughout the body, e.g., in terms of pH and enzyme activity. The site of administration may thus influence the performance of a drug delivery device. 

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