HYDROLYSIS

Hydrolysis

Hydrolysis usually means the cleavage of chemical bonds by the addition of water. Where a carbohydrate is broken into its component sugar molecules by hydrolysis, this is termed saccharification. Generally, hydrolysis or saccharification is a step in the degradation of a substance.

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hydrolysis

Noun

  1. A chemical process of decomposition involving the splitting of a bond and the addition of the hydrogen cation and the hydroxide anion of water.
  2. The degradation of certain biopolymers (proteins, complex sugars) by the chemical process that results in smaller polymers or monomers (such as amino acids or monosaccharides)


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

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