Benefits of Digestive Enzymes

The digestive system is not only composed of the organs and glands in the digestive system but also owing to the various digestive enzymes secreted. Digestive enzymes are an integral part of the digestion process and help in breakdown of food particles and absorption of essential nutrient elements into the body.

Basics About Digestive Enzymes

First of all before we even start discussing the digestive enzymes, it is very important to know what enzymes are. So let's start from the basic concepts. What are enzymes? Well, enzymes are basically proteins that have the ability to accelerate and control the rates of chemical reactions. Almost all the biological processes in a living cell require the presence of some type of enzymes. The type of enzyme catalyzing a reaction is very specific, hence in this case enzymes that exist as a part of the digestive system are called digestive enzymes.

Health Benefits of Digestive Enzymes

All the digestive enzymes basically play a role in breakdown of food and absorption of the nutrients. The digestive enzymes can be classified according to their location in the digestive system.

Oral Cavity

The salivary glands in the oral cavity secrete two important enzymes called ptyalin and lysozyme, however lysozyme is not a digestive enzyme. Ptyalin, which is a digestive enzyme, is a type of µ-amylase. This digestive enzyme helps to break down the starch into smaller segments of soluble sugars, which can then be utilized by the body.

Stomach

The digestive enzymes that are secreted in the stomach are generally referred to as 'gastric enzymes'. There are four gastric enzymes, which include pepsin, gelatinase, gastric amylase and gastric lipase. Pepsin is a peptidase, which refers to larger group of enzymes acting on proteins and breaking them into peptide chains. Pepsin works on proteins, breaking down the protein molecules into peptides. Gelatinase enzyme, degrades type 1 and type 4 gelatins and type 4 and type 5 collagen. Gastric amylase is responsible for breakdown of starch. Gastriclipase, is a butter fat enzyme which specifically acts only on tributyrin which is an ingredient of butter.

Pancreas

Pancreas is a gland organ that secretes many digestive enzymes and is a part of the digestive system of vertebrates. Pancreas secretes trypsin, chymotrypsin, steapsin, carboxypeptidase and pancreatic amylase. Trypsin and chymotrypsin are peptidases that help breakdown the peptides. Steapsin is a digestive enzyme that breaks the triglycerides into fatty acids and glycerol. Carboxypeptidase, is a protease that helps to break the peptide fragments into amino acids. Pancreatic amylase degrades several carbohydrates; In addition to this the pancreas secretes several elastases and nucleases that act on protein elastin and nucleic acids respectively.

Small Intestine

The small intestine secretes several peptidases. The jejunum and the ileum of the small intestine secret a mixture of several enzymes which is called succus entericus. The enzymes included are sucrase, which splits the sucrose into glucose and fructose, maltase that splits maltose into glucose. Isomaltase breaks down maltose an isomaltose. Lactase is responsible for splitting lactose into glucose and galactose whereas intestinal lipase helps to break down the fatty acids.