GCSE Science Digestive Enzymes

GCSE Science Digestive Enzymes

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Fats and Oils

  • Fats and Oils are essential to out diet
  • They are used in the production for storing energy and for heat insulation
  • Lipase is produced in the pancreas
  • The stomach pH is too acidic for it to work
  • Bile is needed to make an emulsion
  • Bile is made in the liver
  • One product of fat digestion is glycerol
  • Fatty acids and glycerol are easily absorbed into the blood stream
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Digestive Enzymes

  • Starch molecules are the storage structure used by plants
  • Basically they are long, often branched chains of carbohydrate molecules
  • Glucose a sugar is required be the body to provide energy
  • Starch cannot be easily absorbed into the blood stream because the molecules are too big
  • In the mouth, an enzyme called amylase (salivary amylase) starts the digestion of starch by breaking it down into maltose
  • Maltose molecules are also too big to be effectively absorbed
  • Amylase form the pancreas (pancreatic amylase) mixes with starch in the small intestine to produce more maltase
  • The small intestine produces an enzyme called maltose that breaks down maltase to glucose 
  • The glucose molecules are then taken into the blood and transpoted around the body to provide energy
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Proteins

  • Proteins are essential in the diet for growth and tissue repair
  • Proteins are large branched molecules (chains of amino acids) found in all types of meat and soya beans
  • Protease are enzymes that digest proteins examples are trypsin and peptidase
  • Proteins are too large to be absorbed into the blood stream
  • Trypsin is produced in the pancreas
  • Trypsin is released into the small intestine and breaks down proteins to form peptides
  • Peptidase is produced by the liver
  • Peptodase breaks down peptides into individual amino acids that are easily absorbed 
  • The acids work best at pH acidic 
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