Chemistry: The Importance Of Enzymes

Energy needed for life comes from the breaking or forming of chemical bonds during chemical reactions. Energy is released in the formation of bonds and energy is also released when the bonds are broken, but in both energy is required to start the chemical reaction. This energy needed to start a chemical reaction, activation energy, comes from enzymes. Enzymes (almost always proteins) are organic catalysts that help speed up the rate of reactions and allow the reactants to get the most out of the energy available. They do this without changing the reaction. Without an enzyme, then many chemical reactions may not occur because the activation energy could be too high to be reached without the help of an enzyme. For example, table salt, or sucrose, could sit for years with no occurrence of hydrolysis, but after a few seconds with an enzyme, hydrolysis could easily occur.

Enzymes are very specific to its reactant that it reacts on. These specific reactants are called substrates. Substrates are the molecules that goes through the changes in the chemical reaction. Enzymes are described as specific because each has an active site that is shaped differently to …show more content…
This means that each has the best temperature that it will work at, when optimum temperature is reached then the rate of reaction decreases. If the optimum temperature has been passed then the enzyme will be denatured, this means that the active site will be destroyed and won’t be able to function. After being denatured the enzyme can not be fixed. Most human enzymes work best at temperatures around our body temperature, 35-40oc. Each enzyme also has a optimal pH. For most enzymes this is around 6-8 pH, but some work better in a more acidic environment. An example is pepsin which works better at a pH of 2. Pepsin is an enzyme in the stomach which helps digest. Just as when the optimum temperature is passed, when the optimal pH is passed the enzyme is