amylase definition of amylase in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

amylase (ăm`əlās'), enzyme enzyme, biological catalyst . The term enzyme comes from zymosis, the Greek word for fermentation , a process accomplished by yeast cells and long known to the brewing industry, which occupied the attention of many 19th-century chemists.
..... Click the link for more information. having physiological, commercial, and historical significance, also called diastase. It is found in both plants and animals. Amylase was purified (1835) from malt by Anselme Payen and Jean Persoz. Their work led them to suspect that similar substances, now known as enzymes, might be involved in biochemical processes. Amylase hydrolyzes starch starch, white, odorless, tasteless, carbohydrate powder. It plays a vital role in the biochemistry of both plants and animals and has important commercial uses.
..... Click the link for more information. , glycogen glycogen (glī`kəjən)
..... Click the link for more information. , and dextrin dextrin, any one of a number of carbohydrates having the same general formula as starch but a smaller and less complex molecule. They are polysaccharides and are produced as intermediate products in the hydrolysis of starch by heat, by acids, and by enzymes.
..... Click the link for more information. to form in all three instances glucose glucose, dextrose, or grape sugar, monosaccharide sugar with the empirical formula C₆H₁₂O₆ .
..... Click the link for more information. , maltose maltose (môl`tōs) or malt sugar, crystalline disaccharide (see carbohydrate ).
..... Click the link for more information. , and the limit-dextrins. Salivary amylase is known as ptyalin; although humans have this enzyme in their saliva, some mammals, such as horses, dogs, and cats, do not. Ptyalin begins polysaccharide digestion in the mouth; the process is completed in the small intestine by the pancreatic amylase, sometimes called amylopsin. The amylase of malt digests barley starch to the disaccharides that are attacked by yeast in the fermentation process.

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amylase