AMYLASE

Amylase

Amylase is an enzyme that catalyses the hydrolysis of starch into sugars. Amylase is present in the saliva of humans and some other mammals, where it begins the chemical process of digestion. Foods that contain much starch but little sugar, such as rice and potato, taste slightly sweet as they are chewed because amylase turns some of their starch into sugar in the mouth. The pancreas also makes amylase to hydrolyse dietary starch into disaccharides and trisaccharides which are converted by other enzymes to glucose to supply the body with energy. Plants and some bacteria also produce amylase. As diastase, amylase was the first enzyme to be discovered and ...

The above text is a snippet from Wikipedia: Amylase
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

amylase

Noun

  1. Any of a class of digestive enzymes, present in saliva, that break down complex carbohydrates such as starch into simpler sugars such as glucose.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: amylase
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

Need help with a clue?
Try your search in the crossword dictionary!