Uses Of Enzymes in Medicine and Industry

Many sweeteners in the modern world are come from starch rather than sugar cane or beet. The enzymatic treatment of starch has become more popular than the acid hydrolysis. Mainly due to more efficiency from the enzymes which can be reused and they lower the energy needed. They are also faster. Many sweet syrups are formed that are needed throughout the food and drink industry. Three stages can be identified in starch modification. Firstly, amylases free "maltodextrin" by the liquefaction process. Such maltodextrins are not very sweet as they contain dextrins and oligosaccharides. The dextrins and oligosaccharides are further hydrolysed by enzymes such as pullulanase and glucoamylase in a process known as saccharification. Complete saccharification converts all the limit dextrins to glucose, maltose and isomaltose. The resulting syrups are relatively sweet and are regularly modified further. Treatment of glucose or maltose syrups with glucose isomerase converts a large proportion of the glucose to fructose, which is sweeter than glucose. High fructose syrups contain fairly equal portions of fructose and glucose. The high fructose syrups are in greater demand than pure glucose as food and drink sweeteners, because fructose is sweeter than glucose. Therefore when glucose can be converted in to fructose its value significantly increases. Fructose is used in diet foods rather than glucose because it is sweeter so less is needed and therefore reducing the calorie content.                                                                                      Enzymes are used to remove the hairs from the animal skins to produce leather. A protease enzyme is used, eg trypsin, which partly digests keratin, the main protein present in hair, allowing the hair to be more gently removed. Protein digesting enzymes extracted from the pancreas of animals are used to diffuse into the skin and break down the proteins around the hair follicles. The use of enzymes in the leather industry has allowed a reduction of harsh chemical substances and pollution.                                                                         Therefore when looking at enzymes in industry we see a distinct trend that enzymes can do the same job cheaper as when using harsher chemicals and also do not threaten the environment, this is because enzymes are a part of nature and are therefore fully biodegradable.                                                           Enzymes are also used heavily in medicine. Enzymes have many uses in pharmaceutical and diagnostic industries. These applications include enzymes as direct pharmaceutical products such as in the treatment of genetic disorders leading to specific enzyme deficiency.  Enzymes have also been useful in diagnosing medical conditions. Enzymes can used to detect or measure the amount of glucose in blood or urine. This is a important indicator in the diagnosis and treatment of diabetes mellitus. Glucose can be detected by using the enzyme glucose oxidase in a biosensor. A biosensor is a device used to detect specific molecules. The device uses a biological system for example a certain enzyme to detect this molecule. The reaction that is produced in biological system will then be converted to an electrical signal by a transducer. In this example of a glucose biosensor it uses glucose oxidase as its biological system. Glucose oxides catalyses the reaction between glucose and oxygen to produce gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide. After this the glucose is then detected and measured according to the amount of oxygen consumed or gluconic acid produced. This results in a change in the electrical signal created by the transducer.

Below is table showing the type of enzymes used in various treatments in medicine.

   

This concludes my essay on the uses of enzymes in medicine and industry.

Bibliography:

Websites Used:                                                                                                

                                                                    http://

Books Used:                                                                                               Advanced Biology - Mary Jones and Geoff Jones     

Biological Journals:                                                                                    Bio Factsheet- April 1999- Number 47- The Economic importance of Enzymes