The application of enzymes in industry and medicine

Have a little read: ... The application of enzymes in industry and medicine. Firstly, what is an enzyme? Enzymes are biological catalysts, they are chemical compounds made inside the cells of living organisms. Enzymes speed up the rate of most chemical reactions without altering the end product. Enzymes generally only work with one certain substrate. The enzyme provides an active site, which is the same shape as the substrate molecules, the substrate binds with the enzyme and causes the reaction to speed up. Enzymes work best at body temperature. Enzymes are used in the making of many things in industry. They are used in the dairy industry, brewing industry, baking industry, agricultural forestry, leather industry, biological washing powders and medicine. There are many advantages in using enzymes in industry, one being that they are very specific in their action, they react only with one certain substrate to produce one certain product and are unlikely to produce any unwanted by-products. Two being that they are energy saving, as they work The most common method of coagulating milk is enzyme coagulation; proteolysis of casein by the enzymes asparate proteinases. The physical properties of enzyme-coagulated milk are better than that coagulated with acid. Curds produced by enzyme coagulation have better syneresis and achieve a lower moisture content without excessive hardening. Enzymes used to coagulate milk come from a number of sources: animals, plants, and fungi. The traditional source of enzyme is rennet. Rennet is a preparation made from the lining of the fourth stomach of calves and is described separately in this document. The most important enzyme in rennet is chymosin. Today, most chymosin is a recombinant product made possible by genetic engineering, as described later. Coagulation of milk can be caused by microbes, rennin, or other clot-stimulating agents. Raw milk, straight from the cow, has enough natural microbes to cause it to curdle (a.k.a., clot or coagulate), especially if the milk is kept warm. The enzymes used to coagulate milk are proteases; a class of enzymes that cut proteins. Specific proteases act on only certain proteins; they are specific for the type of proteins. Many different proteases can be used to coagulate milk. However, the best are those that cut kappa casein. Kappa casein is an important component in maintaining the micelle structure of milk. If the kappa casein is cut, the micelle structure is lost and milk coagulates. There are several sources