Digestive Enzymes Lab Report

The lab that is being preformed is about digestive enzymes. Enzymes are protein molecules produced by living organisms that speed up a specific chemical reaction in the body. There are also digestive enzymes which digest our food. Our bodies make digestive enzymes in the pancreas, stomach, small intestine, and mouth. Digestive enzymes break down the food we eat into nutrients so that our bodies can absorb them. There are different digestive enzymes that digest certain macromolecules such as amylase which digest carbohydrates, lipase which digest fats, protease which digest proteins, and disaccharides which digest sugars. For the experiment pancreatin, which is a combination of digestive enzymes is used. It is produced in the pancreas, activated in a basic environment and it is …show more content…
Proteolytic breaks down proteins, diastatic breaks down starches, and lipolytic breaks down fats. Another chemical used is pepsin, which is a digestive enzyme found in the stomach and helps break down proteins into polypeptides. Cells in the stomach have pepsin to help digest proteins that you get from foods with protein such as meats and eggs. For pepsin to properly function it needs to have the proper pH level, which is approximately 1.5-2 and the right temperature which ranges from 30-40C. Hydrochloric acid, a clear, colourless, highly corrosive solution made up of hydrogen chloride in water. HCL helps break down peptides, amino acids, and lipids into triglycerides (fats from food that are carried in the blood). HCL activates pepsinogen into the enzyme pepsin which then helps with the digestion of proteins and it defends against harmful pathogens. The next experiment that was preformed was about salivary amylase. Salivary amylase is an enzyme present in saliva, catalyzes, and hydrolysis of starches into simpler compounds. It is present in human and animals saliva and helps with the predigestion of