Analysis of Carbohydrate Digestion: A Biochemistry Assignment

This biochemistry assignment explores the process of carbohydrate digestion through a practical experiment involving chewing bread and observing changes in taste. The student's response explains the role of salivary amylase in breaking down starch into simpler sugars, making the bread taste sweet over time. The assignment further details the digestive process, including the breakdown of carbohydrates into monosaccharides, their absorption, and utilization for energy. It also discusses the various enzymes involved, such as amylase, sucrase, maltase, and lactase, and the different forms of carbohydrates like glucose, fructose, and galactose. The assignment also explains how carbohydrates provide energy, and their conversion to glucose for body use. The student provides detailed explanations, references and analysis of the digestive system and the enzymes that help in the digestion of carbohydrates. This assignment provides a comprehensive understanding of the biochemical processes involved in carbohydrate digestion.

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

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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.

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Response to question 3
Carbohydrates has the ability to give energy to the body in order to carry out the
various activities in the daily life. At the time of chewing there are a number of molecules or
enzymes that take part in the digestion and breaks down the complex carbohydrates into
simpler compounds (Gupta, 2019). The various molecules that are involved in the
carbohydrates are glucose, sucrose, galactose, fructose, maltose, lactose, starch and fiber.
The saliva in human mouth contains salivary amylase which is an enzyme and breaks
down the carbohydrate into amylose as well as amylopectin in smaller units of the glucose.
These smaller pieces are called dextrins and maltose (Des Gachons & Breslin, 2016). The
higher amount of the maltose is caused from the mechanical and the chemical breaking of the
starch inside the mouth. In the stomach there is no breakdown of the carbohydrate as the
environment in that area is acidic and disables the activity of amylase.
When the chime or the bolus reaches the small intestine, pancreatic juice is being
released from the pancreas that breaks dextrins into shorter and smaller fragments. Along
with this, the intestinal enzymes like maltase, lactase, and sucrase furthers breaks the
disaccharides into monosaccharaides like sucrase breaks sucrose to glucose and fructose.
After this they are transported to the intestinal villi for easy absorbance (Williams, 2019).
The small intestine contains special transporters that help in the absorbance and transport of
monosaccharaides. For instance, fructose is absorbed by the help of facilitated diffusion while
glucose and galactose by active transport.
Response to question 4
Carbohydrates are needed by the body in order to get energy after they are absorbed
into the bloodstream. As carbohydrates are consumed as complex structures and it is not
possible for the body to absorb that thus, it is necessary to break down carbohydrates into

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simple sugars after consumption of the food. This is important as that helps the body to get
energy and to act accordingly. The body uses the food to generate glucose that is the ultimate
source of energy in a human body. Thus, the body uses glucose either instantly or stores it for
future use in order to use the energy later for some other purpose.
The ultimate step of the carbohydrate digestion is the conversion of carbohydrate to
glucose, galactose and fructose that can be transported into the blood stream. This is done by
the help of the various transporters that facilitate the transport of the simple sugars into the
blood stream for their utilization for energy (Kushak et al., 2017).

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References
Des Gachons, C. P., & Breslin, P. A. (2016). Salivary amylase: digestion and metabolic
syndrome. Current diabetes reports, 16(10), 102.
Freitas, D., Le Feunteun, S., Panouillé, M., & Souchon, I. (2018). The important role of
salivary α-amylase in the gastric digestion of wheat bread starch. Food & function,
9(1), 200-208.
Gupta, A. (2019). Digestion and Absorption of Carbohydrates. In Comprehensive
Biochemistry for Dentistry (pp. 395-401). Springer, Singapore.
Kushak, R. I., Winter, H. S., Buie, T. M., Cox, S. B., Phillips, C. D., & Ward, N. L. (2017).
Analysis of the duodenal microbiome in autistic individuals: association with
carbohydrate digestion. Journal of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition, 64(5),
e110-e116.
Williams, J. A. (2019). Amylase. Pancreapedia: The Exocrine Pancreas Knowledge Base.