Enzymes, proteins, what's the difference? Enzymes are proteins, and like all proteins, they are made up of long chains of amino acids. Enzymes are found in every cell, where they control the metabolic processes that convert nutrients into energy and cell material. Enzymes also help breakdown food into simple compounds. Enzymes perform specific functions. Enzymes, also known as catalysts, are able to perform these tasks because they can speed up a chemical process without being consumed in the process. Enzymes can only work on renewable raw material though, such as fruit, cereals, milk, fats, meat, cotton, leather, or wood.
             Enzymes are constantly working even when someone puts something in there mouth, Amylases immediately begins to break down starches into dextrin and maltose. Once food reaches the stomach, acidic gastric juices are released from special glands and the partly digested food and the gastric juices are churned together in the stomach and then propelled into the duodenum. Once in the duodenum, pancreatic juice is released and neutralizes the any acids. After this it passes into the small intestine where most of the nutrients are absorbed and then enter the blood.
             Enzymes were first discovered by the Greeks, which came from finding out grape juice could be turned into wine. Also, herders who used goat and sheep stomachs for canteens noticed that when they filled the stomachs with milk instead of water, the milk clumped into cheese, the enzyme that causes this is rennin, an enzyme produced in ruminant animals' stomachs. The process was not fully understood for hundreds of years later. Some of the earliest studies of inorganic catalysts were by Jobs Jakob Berzelius, a Swedish chemist, around 1835. In 1926, the first enzyme was obtained in crystalline form by James B. Sumner of Cornell University, who late received the Nobel Prize for his work with enzyme unrease. The German physiologist, Wilhelm Kuhne, p...