What is alpha-amylase
Alpha Amylase is an enzyme of the digestive tract, which is produced by numerous living organisms – including humans. Enzymes are, generally speaking, molecules that serve as catalysts for biochemical reactions, i.e. they accelerate metabolic and conversion processes that would take place spontaneously and very slowly without an enzyme. Like most enzymes, amylases are proteins. In the human body, they mainly take over the task of splitting up ingested food and thus make it usable or absorbable for the intestine. In addition, alpha-amylase is used in clinical routine for the diagnosis of various metabolic and organ disorders, infectious diseases and also some types of cancer.
Task and function
- The enzyme alpha-amylase belongs to the super group of amylases, which in turn comprises five sub groups. Its name is derived from the Greek word “Amylon” for starch flour.
- The suffix “-ase” is used in biochemistry for enzymes that break down organic or chemical bonds. From this, the function of amylases can be seen: they break down polysaccharides, i.e. polysaccharides. In the special case of alpha-amylase, the cleaved polysaccharide is starch.
- Starch molecules, as energy reserves of plants, are composed of several individual glucose molecules, which form linear chains with structures branching off from them. As a whole, they form comparatively huge molecules, which cannot be absorbed in this form by the intestinal mucosa.
- This is where the alpha and beta amylases come into play, splitting the starch at different points into polysaccharides (oligosaccharides) and disaccharides, which in this case is maltose.
- In the case of starch, this is split into glucose, which is a monosaccharide and can be absorbed into the body via specialized transporters in the cell wall of the intestinal mucosa.
- Alpha-amylase therefore plays an enormously important role in energy production – both for plants, which have to mobilize their own energy reserves in order to mature and grow, and for humans, who use the food they eat to produce energy.
- In addition, amylases naturally occurring in cereals or previously biotechnologically produced amylases are used in brewing beer or for the production of baked goods.
- They are also used as a component of dishwashing detergent or detergent to dissolve starch residues.