‫ﺑﺴﻢ ﷲ اﻟﺮﺣﻤﻦ اﻟﺮﺣﯿﻢ‬

Digestive Enzymes

Bioc. 231

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 Digestive Enzymes
• Digestive enzymes are the chemicals
that break large insoluble food
molecules into smaller soluble
molecules.
• Digestive enzymes are usually
synthesized as larger inactive
precursors (zymogens).
• The majority of enzymes involved in
the digestive process are hydrolases,
i.e. they split bonds of esters,
glycosides or peptides by addition an
elements of water.
• Most digestive enzymes are active
within the pH range 6.5-7.5.

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 Carbohydrates Digestion
• Amylases are used in break down
complex sugars, such as starch, into
simple sugars.
• Amylase is most active at pH 7.0.
• Carbohydrates digestion begins in the
mouth with the salivary amylase, which
catalyzes the reactions that digest
polysaccharides into smaller
oligosaccharides.
• The amylase is denatured in stomach
because of acidity.
• After the food leaves the stomach, the
remaining polysaccharides and
oligosaccharides are digested in the small
intestine with the help of many enzymes,
including pancreatic amylase.
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 Carbohydrates Digestion
• There are also enzymes
associated with the
enterocytes of the small
intestine called brush border
enzymes (are digestive
enzymes located in the
membrane of the brush
border (microvilli) on intestinal
epithelial cells) these include:
– Lactase
– Maltase
– Sucrase
• Many plant polymers, including
celluloses, hemicelluloses, inulin,
pectin, are resistant to human
digestive enzymes.

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 Fats/Lipids Digestion
• Lipases are water-soluble
enzymes that act as
catalysts in the hydrolysis
reaction of ester chemical
bonds in water-insoluble
lipid substrates.
• Lingual lipase, secreted by
intrinsic salivary glands of
the tongue, digests a small
amount of fat while food is
still in the mouth but
becomes more active at the
acidic pH of the stomach.

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 Fats/Lipids Digestion
• Gastric lipase (acid-stable lipase)
makes a larger contribution to fat
digestion (10-15%). It converts
triacylglycerol mostly into fatty
acids, diacylglycerols, and small
amount of monoacylglycerol.
• Most fat digestion occurs in the
small intestine through the action
of pancreatic lipase. It cleaves
acylglycerols mainly to fatty acids
and monoacylglycerols.
• Absorption of resulting fatty acids
and monoacylglycerols requires
bile salts micelles
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 Fats/Lipids Digestion
• Lipids are insoluble in aqueous solutions.
• Two problems have to be overcome:
- poor accessibility of the substrate to the enzyme.
- aggregation of products of hydrolysis to larger complexes that are hard to
absorb.
• Fat globules are emulsified by bile which is made in the liver and stored in the gall
bladder.
• The monoglycerides and fatty acids produced by lipase action aggregate to form
spherical structures called micelles.

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 Proteins Digestion
• Peptidases (Proteases):
- endopeptidases: attack internal
bonds:
o pepsin
o trypsin
o chymotrypsin
o elastase

- exopeptidases: cleave off 1 AA at a

time from the:
• C-terminus – carboxypeptidases.
• N-terminus – aminopeptidases.

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 Proteins Digestion
• Most proteins digestive enzymes are produced
as zymogens (inactive forms of enzymes). This
is necessary to prevent the enzymes from
digesting the cells that produced them.
• Trypsin is released from the pancreas in the
form of trypsinogen and is activated by
enterokinase an enzyme secreted by the
mucosa of the small intestine.

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 Proteins Digestion
• In the stomach there is also a stable
layer of mucus that is stuck to the
epithelial surface which protects the
stomach from damage from both
the acid and pepsin.
• Duodenum is also normally
protected from the gastric acid by a
layer of mucus.
• There is also a release of alkaline
pancreatic juice to neutralize the
chyme (is the partially digested food
which passes from the stomach into
the small intestine).
• Also alkaline juice from the
duodenal glands.

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 Proteins Digestion
• Protein digestion begins in the
stomach with the enzyme pepsin.
• It is secreted by the chief cells of the
gastric glands in the form of
pepsinogen.
• HCL helps convert pepsinogen into the
active enzyme pepsin.
• Digests less than 15% of ingested
protein.
• The majority of the protein digestion
occurs in the small intestine with
pancreatic enzymes such as trypsin
and chymotrypsin and the brush
border enzymes such as
carboxypeptidase, elastase and
aminopeptidase .
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 ‫ﺑﺴﻢ ﷲ اﻟﺮﺣﻤﻦ اﻟﺮﺣﯿﻢ‬

Industrial Enzymes

Bioc. 231

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 Industrial enzymes
• Industrial enzyme: an enzyme that is used to facilitate
industrial processes or the production of industrial
products.
• Over 500 products covering 50 applications, from
detergents to beer making, utilize enzymes produced
through large-scale fermentation of microorganisms.
– Food enzymes, the second largest segment at 25% of the
market, includes enzymes employed in the dairy, brewing,
wine and juice, fats and oils, and baking industries.
– Finally, feed enzymes, comprising enzymes used in animal
feeds, contributes approximately 10% of the market.

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• Kirk O, Borchert T and Fuglsang C. Industrial enzyme applications. Current Opinion in Biotechnology 2002, 13:345–351.
 Proteases
• Proteases are a large group of enzymes that catalyze the
hydrolysis of peptide bonds in proteins and polypeptides.
• Proteases may be classified into 3 groups by the optimal pH
in which they are active:
1. Acidic proteases: have pH optima in the range of 2.0–5.0
and are mainly fungal in origin.
2. Neutral proteases: have pH optima around 7.0. They
aremainly of plant origin and some bacteria and fungi also
produce neutral proteases.
3. Alkaline (basic) proteases: have pH optima in the range of
8.0–11.0. Some of the important alkaline proteases are
those from Bacillus and Streptomyces species.

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 Lipases
• Lipases are a class of hydrolases that catalyze
the hydrolysis of triglycerides to glycerol and
free fatty acids.
• Lipases are widely present in bacteria, fungi,
plants, and animals.
• Lipases are the enzymes of choice for
potential applications in numerous industrial
processes including areas such as oils and
fats, detergents, baking, cheese making, hard-
surface cleaning, as well as leather and paper
processing.
• Nowadays, heavy-duty powder detergents
and dishwasher detergents usually contain
one or more enzymes including lipase, which
can reduce the environmental impact of the
detergent products. Lipases are used in
detergent formulations for efficient removal
of lipid stains, allowing better washing
performances and energy savings.
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 Amylases
§ Amylases are glycoside hydrolases that act on α-1,4-
glycosidic bonds and break down starch into sugars.
§ Amylases of microbial origin are divided into exo-
and endo-acting enzymes.
• Exo-amylases include glucoamylases and β-
amylases.
- Glucoamylases (EC 3.2.1.3) catalyze the hydrolysis
of α-1,4 and α-1,6 glucosidic linkages with lower
rate for α-1,6 cleavage to release β-D-glucose from
the non reducing ends of starch and related poly-
and oligosaccharides.
- β-Amylases (EC 3.2.1.2) cleave the α-1,4-glycosidic
bonds in starch from the non reducing ends to give
maltose.
• Endo-amylases (α-amylases, EC 3.2.1.1) hydrolyze
internal α-1,4 bonds and bypass α-1,6 linkages in
amylopectin and glycogen at random in an endo-
fashion producing malto-oligosaccharides of varying
chain lengths.
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