What do enzymes do to starch?

Answer 1

Starch is a polysaccharide, which means it is made up of long, complex chains of carbohydrates. Enzymes (such as amylase) are responsible for breaking the starch down into simpler monosaccharides, which can then be absorbed easily by the gut into the bloodstream for transferring round the body

Answer 2

amylase is a starch hydrolising enzyme.

in the mouth, saliva contains 'salivary amylase' which converts starch present inthe food to maltose ( a disaccharide).

pancreatic amylase finally converts the disaccharide (maltose)into the simplest form, glucose (monosaccharide)

Answer 3

Enzymes work by providing a surface for a chemical reaction to occur. There are complex chemical processes involved but the enzyme usually acts as some form of catalyst or acts to bind two molecules in close proximity so that they can interact.

There are 3 main factors that will affect the rate of the chemical digestion of starch into maltose. These are:

1. Temperature. In a simplistic sense, when a substance is heated the particles gain more internal energy. This normally results in them travelling faster. As enzymes work by the binding of a substrate to the active site of the enzyme if the substrate has higher energy and is moving faster the probability of this occurring increases. All enzymes have an optimum temperature at which they are the most effective. If the temperature is too high then the enzyme (which is primarily protein) will be denatured. For amylase the optimum temperature is around 98.6F (37C)

2. Substrate concentration. It follows that if there are more molecules of substrate then the probability of a collision between substrate and enzyme will increase. However, this reaches a limit as there comes a point where all then enzyme molecules are 'busy' so it doesn't matter how excess substrate is present.

3. pH. This is very similar to temperature in that at a certain pH the enzyme will work at an optimum rate. For amylase in the mouth it is around 7.

Answer 4

Enzymes break down starch into smaller molecules such as glucose through a process called hydrolysis. This process involves the enzyme breaking the bonds between the glucose units in the starch, resulting in shorter chains of glucose molecules.

Answer 5

when mixed with it and heated at a certain temperature it breaks down the starch to the sugar maltose.