Enzymes in Medicine and Food Industry

Enzymes in Medicine and Food Industry

Enzymes are used very frequently in all of the above places because

they provide a useful means of getting the required material out of a

substance without wasting either the substance or the enzyme, as they

are renewable. The following shows how enzymes are used in industry to

extract or make useful substances.

Enzymes are biological catalysts that can help speed up a reaction by

providing an active site. This active site is where the reaction takes

place and it's shape is specifically opposite or complementary to the

substrate that it has to react with. Enzymes are not "used up" in a

reaction, the active site can continue to work on many other

substrates until they run out and then it must stop. This is a

distinct advantage to enzymes in industry, as it is cost effective. If

the enzymes can be isolated, a continuous production process can be

taking place.

Industry

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The alcohol industry can use enzymes to make products of different

distillations, the enzymes can make alcohol of up to 20% proof so it

is usually used to make beer and wine as the individual tastes of

these products make the market extensive and wide in variety. The

disadvantage of this is that there can be stiff competition to make

the exacting quantities correct to get the most popular product on the

market. The enzymes have to be tested on many different products to

create an individual taste.

Brewing beer involves yeast and plant material producing alcohol as a

useful substance. The plant material that can be used is barley,

maize, hops, sorghum or rice.

The yeast cells are capable of converting simple sugars into alcohol

and carbon dioxide.

The problem is that the yeast cannot work on the raw plant material,

as the sugars are too complex. This means that the nutrients have to

be processed first in the process of malting.

Malting is the process where the barley is allowed to partly grow and