Amylase
Amylase is a specialized enzyme that plays a crucial role in the digestion of carbohydrates by catalyzing the hydrolysis process that converts complex carbohydrates into glucose, providing essential energy for the body's cells and organs. This enzyme is vital for breaking down foods, particularly starches found in various dietary sources, and its activity begins in the mouth with a form known as ptyalin, produced by salivary glands. Additionally, a pancreatic form of amylase continues this breakdown throughout the digestive system. The importance of carbohydrates, which constitute a significant portion of the average diet, is underscored by the enzyme’s ability to facilitate their conversion into usable energy. Beyond digestion, amylase levels in the blood and urine serve as important indicators of various health conditions, including pancreatitis and kidney failure, making it a valuable tool in medical diagnostics. The distinction between simple and complex carbohydrates is essential, as it influences digestion rates and overall health, highlighting the enzyme's role in nutritional discussions. Overall, amylase is not only pivotal in digestion but also plays a significant part in understanding and monitoring health conditions.
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Amylase
Amylases are a class of specialized enzymes, or protein molecules, that are responsible for performing functions critical to the digestion processes. Enzymes in general are biological catalysts, meaning that they are necessary to accelerate certain biological chemical reactions but are not consumed by the reactions they facilitate. Amylases help the body break down complex carbohydrates taken in as food by catalyzing the particular reaction, known as hydrolysis, that converts them to glucose, which in turn provides energy to the body’s cells, blood, and organs. Without a bio-catalytic agent, this conversion process would be slowed or even negated.
Despite the widespread negative perception of carbohydrates among many of the diet-conscious, the body in fact has critical uses for carbohydrates. They are by far the body’s most critical source of usable energy. Starches, for instance, are simply densely packed, highly condensed sugar molecules, and sugar is critical to the body’s energy reservoirs. Helping release that sugar into the body’s systems efficiently and quickly is the function of amylase.
Background
The conversion of carbohydrates into sugar, in addition to being a fundamental function of the any animal’s digestive system, also impacts a number of other food-conversion processes involving grains, most notably the making of bread and the fermenting of beer and alcohol. Indeed, it was just that connection to the food industry that initially led to the discovery of amylase.
Amylase was the first enzyme to be named. Anselme Payen (1795–1871), a French industrial biochemist, was the first to classify natural enzymes as part of a wider research project centered on refining and purifying sugar in sugar beets; he isolated the enzyme and named it "diastase," from a Greek word meaning to separate or set apart. Later, in 1833, while working with fellow industrial chemist Jean-François Persoz (1805–68) to define the principal processes in large-scale beer and wine production, Payen further isolated amylase as a naturally occurring catalyst in the concentrated barley or grain mixture that, in turn, enabled the production of sugar from the grains, an elemental step in the fermentation process. These amylase proteins, found in molds, grains, higher grades of plants, and yeast, were eventually termed beta-amylases (β-amylases) to distinguish them from the alpha-amylases (α-amylases) found in the digestive system.
In the body, the conversion of carbohydrates, which account for typically between 55 and 65 percent of the average person’s diet, is essential to providing the body with glucose. Amylase is introduced to the process almost immediately; the salivary glands that line the inside of the mouth and along the throat actually produce a type of α-amylase known as ptyalin that begins to interact with food as soon as a person consumes it. Another form of α-amylase, produced by the pancreas, enables the body to continue to degrade the starches throughout the digestive process.
Carbohydrates themselves are found in many different types of foods. Nutritionists are quick to point out that some carbohydrates are simply better than others for the body’s overall health. Generally, the more processed the carbohydrates are—that is, the more refined sugars or chemical preservatives are added—the less usable they are for the body.
Carbohydrates have been classified as either simple or complex based on their molecular structure. Simple carbohydrates, sometimes called sugars, are monosaccharides or disaccharides—that is, either a single molecular unit of the general formula CnH2nOn, or two such molecules joined by a glycosidic bond—and include sugars such as glucose, sucrose, fructose, and lactose, which can be quickly broken down and degraded by amylase-catalyzed hydrolysis; this efficient reaction accounts for the quick rush of energy that can accompany eating a candy bar or downing a doughnut. Complex carbohydrates, sometimes called starches, are polysaccharides or oligosaccharides (small polysaccharides), consisting of multiple monosaccharides joined by glycosidic bonds, and thus generally take longer to be broken down into useful blood sugars; they are also less digestible, which has the side effect of providing dietary fiber. In general, carbohydrates that take longer to digest, and thus raise blood sugar more slowly, are healthier than those that digest quickly and raise blood sugar rapidly. However, it is not necessarily true that a complex carbohydrate will always be digested more slowly than a simple carbohydrate, as a number of other factors also affect the rate of digestion.
Impact
While the catalytic activities of amylase have made the enzyme central in the ongoing debates on healthy lifestyle and smart food choices, amylase is also critical in monitoring other body processes. Accurate measurement of the presence of amylase in the blood and urine can help detect the onset of several potentially catastrophic body ailments. For instance, trace amounts of amylase detected in the bloodstream can alert physicians to conditions such as gallstones, pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, and even kidney failure. Tests on salivary glands and on the pancreas itself may identify a high concentration of amylase, which can indicate inflammation of the glands and can signal a range of conditions from mumps to throat cancer, or an alarmingly low concentration, which can indicate a range of organ failures relating to both the kidney and the liver. In addition, tests that measure the level of amylase have been used to diagnose the dimensions of abuse from long-term abuse of alcohol (the enzyme works overtime to try to convert all the fermented liquid into usable sugars), the side effects of prescription birth control pills, and the impact of often ill-conceived crash diets.
Bibliography
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