What is a enzyme as a biological catalyst?
they are biological catalysts as they make chemical reactions happen, and a catalyst increases the speed/rate of a reaction with being used or changed in the reaction, so enzymes are all proteins, all proteins are chains of amino acids folded into unique shapes needed for the job. the enzyme has an active site which the substrate fits into. enzymes only catalase one reaction, work best at 37 degrees Celsius as at 40 they are denatured. the pH also affects it as if it is too high or low the bonds are broken changing the shape (denaturing) so all enzymes have an optimum pH, mainly neutral whilst pepsin breaks down proteins in the stomach which is acidic so its optimum pH is pH 2.
