Enzymes (Biological Catalyst)

 Many chemical reactions can be speeded up by substances called catalysts.

 A Catalyst alters the rate of a chemical reaction without being changed itself.

 Within any living organism chemical reactions take place all of the time. They are
controlled by special catalysts called enzymes.

There are two types of enzymes

Those that work inside the cell (called intracellular), and

Those that work outside the cell (called extracellular).

Intracellular Enzymes

One example of this is catalase:

Catalase breaks down the toxic material hydrogen peroxide which is produced by many
chemical reactions in cells.

catalase
Hydrogen peroxide water + oxygen

Of all the enzymes, most are given the prefix ‘ase’ to indicate that it is an enzyme.

Extracellular Enzymes

The best examples of these are the digestive enzymes such as the ones that digest the
proteins, carbohydrates and the lipids. These enzymes are released into the mouth and the
digestive tract such as the stomach and the intestine. Digestive enzymes break down the
large food materials to smaller ones. A different enzyme is needed for each of the reactions
because the reactions are very specific.

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Generally we say that an enzyme:

 that breaks down a protein is called a PROTEASE (e.g. pepsin and trypsin),
 that breaks down a carbohydrate is called a CARBOHYDRASE (e.g. amylase), and
 one that breaks down a lipid called a LIPASE.

Enzymes break down large molecules into smaller molecules. The enzymes of digestion do
this. They take starch and make it into smaller sugars and proteins are broken down into
amino acids. However enzymes help to make larger molecules in some cases. Plants make
glucose during photosynthesis, the glucose molecules are then converted into starch for
storage purposes. This is a larger molecule. Why does the plant store the glucose as starch ?

The chemical reactions are the making of products from substrates, i.e.

Substrate product

These enzymes are always proteins and are re-usable. They are also very specific, the one
enzyme can only be used in the one reaction. These enzymes are sensitive to:

 Temperature
 pH
 Surface area
 Concentration (i) of the enzyme, and
(ii) of the substrate.

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As the temperature of the enzyme rises the rate at which the enzyme works will increase (this
is called the rate of the reaction). The rate at which the enzymes work fastest is called the
optimum temperature. Humans tend to have enzymes that work best at 37oC. If the
enzyme goes above this then the temperature will destroy the enzyme and the protein enzyme
becomes denatured. At lower temperatures the enzymes are inactivated, i.e. they are greatly
slowed down. However if the temperature is increased then the reaction will increase much
quicker. If the enzyme is denatured though the reaction will not take place again.

In the case of pH, most enzymes have specific pH’s that they work best at. This is called
their optimum pH. Deviation from the pH that is optimum will denature the protein.
Intracellular enzymes workbest at pH ‘s of around 7. However, the extracellular generally
work best at the pH at which they subjected to, i.e. the enzymes of digestion – pepsin – will
work best at a pH of around 4.5. This is the same as the pH that the enzyme is found in the
body within the duodenum.

Uses of Enzymes

Biological washing powders are used to remove stains. These stains can be lipids, proteins or
carbohydrates and hence use lipases, proteases and carbohydrases. The protein stains can
include blood, sweat and food. The advantage of biological washing powders is that they
work at relatively low temperatures. However if you use a washing powder that is biological
and the temperature is too high this will destroy the protein (denature it) and it will not work.