From homework:

 

Your job is to evaluate the effectiveness of a variety of enzymes on improving the digestion of various starches. The starch sources include potatoes and beans. The enzymes that are available for use include lactase (in Lactaid), d-alpha-galactosidase (in Beano), and the amylase contained in your saliva. For indicators of the presence of starches and their digestion products, you will use the Lugol's Iodine test, the Benedict;s test, and Diastix test strips.

 

Below are the background info I need. (Right now I can't locate my background notes from class.)

Carbohydrates:

Types and their structures & function, monomers, polymers.

 

Bonding between monomers: hydration synthesis, condensation, hydrolysis.

 

What is an enzyme,

What are they, what do they do, and how do they work?

What is a substrate?

 

Digestion, what, where, how, under what conditions

 

Factors that affect enzyme action.

 

Any help is appreciated.

Carbohydrates have the emprical formula Cx(H2O)y. The are polyhydroxy ketones and aldehydes. Carbohydrate monomers (monosaccharides) polymerise by codensation to form polysaccharides. Polysaccharides can be broken down into monosaccharides by hydrolysis.

 

Enzymes are catalytic proteins (or RNA), so they increase the rate of a reaction, and/or bring substrates together to be catalysed. The substrate is the molecule/s they act on.

 

Digestion is way too complicated

 

Enzyme action is affected by temp and pH, as well as the concentration of them and the substrate.

Thanks for the info, Skye