Digestive Enzymes

Organs of Digestion and their Enzymes

Mouth:

• Salivary amylase (also known as ptyalin)
  
  Digests starches

Stomach:

• Gastric lipase
  
  Small quantity
  Digests butter fat
  No lypolytic activity on other fats
• Gastric amylase
  Small role in digestion of starches
• Gelatinase
  Helps liquify some proteoglycans in meat

Pancreas:

• Pancreatic proteases:
Trypsin
Splits whole and partially digested protein into peptides of various sizes but does not cause release of individual amino acids
Chymotrypsin
Splits whole and partially digested protein into peptides of various sizes but does not cause release of individual amino acids
Carboxypolypeptidase
Splits individual amino acids from the carboxyl ends of peptides
Ribonuclease
Splits ribonucleic acid
Deoxyribonuclease
Splits deoxyribonucleic acid
• Pancreatic amylase:
Hydrolyzes starches, glycogen and most other carbohydrates except cellulose to form disaccharides and a few trisaccharides
• Pancreatic lipase:
Hydrolyzes neutral fat into fatty acids and monoglycerides
• Pancreatic cholesterol esterase:
Hydrolyzes cholesterol esters
• Pancreatic phospholipase:
Splits fatty acids from phospholipids

Copyright 1998 - 2008 by L. Vicky Crouse, ND and James S. Reiley, ND. All rights reserved (ISSN 1527-0661).