What are enzymes?

Enzymes are naturally occurring simple conjugate proteins acting as specific catalysts in all processes. In contrast to ordinary chemical catalyst, it loses activity by pH or temperature change.

For example:- the enzyme used to catalyze the hydrolysis of maltose into glucose is named as maltase.

Enzymes are highly specific, i.e., a particular enzyme catalyses a specific reaction. For example, urase attacks on urea. This specific action is due to active sites present in the enzyme molecule (E) that fits into substrate (S) and forms E-S complex which changes into product P and E.

Enzymes increase the speed of reactions. They can catalyze several million of reactions per second.