What are the functions of digestive enzymes?
Each digestive enzyme works best in a specific environment, and each segment of the digestive tract offers that unique environment so enzymes can work in concert to carry out healthy digestion. The following provides a brief outline for what, in reality, is a very complex process. Mouth. As soon as we eat, salivary amylase in the mouth begins the digestive process by breaking down bigger starch molecules (polysaccharides) into smaller ones, known as maltose and dextrin. Stomach. As food moves to the stomach, gastric juices — comprised of hydrochloric acid and pepsinogen, secreted by parietal and chief glands in the stomach’s lining — take over next. The job description for hydrochloric acid in the stomach is to dissolve food, kill unwanted microorganisms, and convert pepsinogen into the stomach enzyme pepsin. Pepsin, a proteolytic (protein-breaking) enzyme, helps unwind and chop up molecules of protein into smaller subcomponents. Most proteins are big, complicated molecules made up of
