Biochemistry | Question and Answer

Running Head: BIOCHEMISTRY
BIOCHEMISTRY
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

BIOCHEMISTRY1
Response to question 1
Yes, there is a change in the sweetness of the bread that becomes evident after
chewing the bread for quite a time. When the piece of bread is chewed slowly then after
certain time frame there is change in the sweetness of the bread. This is mainly due to the
enzyme called amylase that is being secreted by the salivary gland (Freitas et al., 2018).
Amylase helps in breaking down the starch into simple sugar molecules which makes the
taste of the bread sweet.
As bread contains starch and thus the reaction of starch with that of amylase provides
the sweet taste in the bread. This can be experienced after few minutes of chewing the bread.
Response to question 2
After the ingestion of the food there is a series of processes in the digestive system of
the humans. This involves a number of enzymes and certain complex processes that help in
carrying out the digestion. There are a number of compounds for which there are specific
enzymes that can help in the digestion process. In specific, carbohydrates that are consumed
in the form of rice, bread, or potato are digested by a series after entering the mouth.
At first, in the mouth the carbohydrates come in contact with that of amylase that
converts the carbohydrates to maltose which is a disaccharide and after that the food goes to
esophagus (Freitas et al., 2018). Then after entering the duodenum these disaccharides are
broken down to monosaccharaides by the help of the enzymes called sucrases, maltases, and
lactases. After this step is completed the monosaccharaides produced from the disaccharides
are then absorbed by the blood in the bloodstream and are transported to cell. This can be
then used in the metabolic path for harnessing the energy.