Chemical Digestion

● Chemical digestion involves

breaking down large, usually
insoluble, food molecules into
small, soluble food molecules by
hydrolysis.
● During hydrolysis, the bonds
within the large food molecules
are broken down by the addition
of water molecules.
● Hydrolysis is catalysed by
digestive enzymes.
 Enzymes
● Enzymes are biological catalysts
produced by all living cells.

● They speed up chemical reactions

occurring in living organisms without
being changed themselves.

● Enzymes are proteins.

● Without enzymes, chemical reactions

would occur too slowly to maintain life.
 Properties of Enzymes
All enzymes have similar properties:
✓ They are all proteins.
✓ Enzymes are specific, i.e. each type of
enzyme catalyses only one type of reaction.
✓ Enzymes work best at a particular
temperature known as the optimum
temperature. This is about 37 °C for human
enzymes.
✓ High temperatures denature enzymes, i.e.
the shape of the enzyme molecules changes
so that they are inactivated. Enzymes start to
be denatured at about 40 °C to 45 °C.
 Properties of Enzymes
✓ Enzymes work best at a particular pH
known as the optimum pH. This is
about pH 7 for most enzymes.
✓ Extremes of acidity or alkalinity
denature most enzymes.
✓ The action of enzymes is helped by
certain vitamins and minerals, e.g.
vitamin B1 helps the action of
respiratory enzymes.
✓ The action of enzymes is inhibited by
certain poisons, e.g. arsenic and
cyanide.
Types of Enzymes
✓ There are three
categories of
digestive enzymes
and several
different enzymes
may belong to
each category.
The substance The substance
that the enzyme
that are made
breaks down is
called the are known as
substrate. the products
 Enzymes
● Enzymes are biological catalysts
produced by all living cells.

● They speed up chemical reactions

occurring in living organisms
without being changed
themselves.

● Enzymes are proteins.

● Without enzymes, chemical
reactions would occur too slowly to
maintain life.
Digestive Enzymes
✓ Chemical digestion
begins in the mouth,
continues in the
stomach and is
completed in the
small intestine.
 The Effect of Temperature on Enzyme Activity
✓ At the beginning (0-10oC).. There is little or no energy
to cause the collision of the substrate with the
enzyme active site for a reaction to take place.
✓ At 11-40oC..As the temperature increases, the kinetic
energy of the enzyme and substrate molecules
increases thus the enzyme and substrate are moving
faster so there are more collisions per second
between the substrate and the enzyme active site.
✓ The enzyme works best at 40oc. (optimum
temperature).
✓ The enzymes are denatured at temperatures above
40o because enzymes are proteins, they lose their
three-dimensional structure at high temperatures and
the resulting change in the structure of the active site
prevents it from reacting with or binding to the
substrate. Hence a sharp decline.
Atwaroo-Ali, L. (2014). Biology for CSEC (3rd ed.). Macmillian Education.

Fosbery, R., Foster, C., & Peart, A. (2014). Study Guide Biology for CSEC. Oxford University Press.

Tindale, A. (2016). Biology: A concise revision course for CSEC. Collins.