Digestive Enzyme Experiment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Digestive Enzyme Experiment - Essay Example There are two (2) main reasons why the digestion of starches starts in the mouth (i.e. salivary amylase) and eventually stops as soon as the partially digested starches could reach the stomach. First, it is important to know that digestion of food nutrients can occur using either mechanical digestion or chemical enzymes and that starch is a polysaccharide that can be digested only via chemical reactions (Eliasson, 2006, p. 475; Sullivan and Cooley, 2004, p. 45). Second, the stomach is responsible for mechanical digestion (Rechtman, 2004, p. 114). Since starch cannot be digested mechanically, it is impossible for starch to be digested in the stomach. Basically, starch is a good example of complex carbohydrates (Shetty, 2010, p. 24; Chopra, 2005, p. 91). Because of the long chains of glucose that are heavily tied up together, carbohydrates such as starch can only be broken down by enzymes such as the salivary amylase (Sullivan and Cooley, 2004, p. 45). Eventually the reaction of saliva ry amylase can break down starch into a much simple carbohydrates which then can be absorbed in the small intestine (Eliasson, 2006, p. 475). In general, salivary amylase is not the only enzyme that can be use to digest starch. Other enzymes such as the pancreatic amylase as well as maltase can also be used in the chemical digestion of starch (McGuire and Beerman, 2013, p. 130; Eliasson, 2006, p. 475). For instance, as soon as the pancreas releases pancreatic juice like pancreatic amylase, it can further break down the polysaccharides.