Enzymes are biological catalysts that make chemical reactions of digestion occur more quickly.
Organ
|
Enzyme
Produced
|
Digests
|
Mouth
|
Amylase
|
Starch (broken into glucose)
|
Stomach
|
Pepsin
|
Protein (broken into amino acids)
|
Pancreas (digestion occurs in the small intestine)
|
Amylase
Protease
Lipase
Nucleases
|
Starch
Protein
Lipids (broken into glycerol and fatty acids)
DNA and RNA |
Doudenum (small intestine)
|
Sucrase
Lactase
Maltase
|
Sucrose
Lactose
Maltose
|
Different digestive enzymes work on different food chemicals and can require different conditions. e.g. pepsin works on acidic conditions of the stomach but not alkaline conditions of the doudenum.
The following graphs show how temperature and pH affect the activity of digestive enzymes.
