Carbohydrate Digestion

Carbohydrate Digestion:
To hydrolyse starch, salivary amylase breaks down any of the starch in the food with the amylase to maltose by breaking the glycocydic bonds. Maltose is a disaccharide, which can therefore be broken down further.
Starch Digestion is finished in the small intestine by the pancreas producing pancreatic amylase and secreting this into the small intestine, where this breaks down any remaining starch into maltose. Then, muscles in the intestine wall push the food along, while the epithelial lining of the small intestine secretes the enzyme maltase, which breaks the maltose down into alpha glucose.
Disaccharides are digested by enzymes being secreted by the small intestine’s epithelial lining, which break the disaccharides down into monosaccharides, such as sucrase (fructose and glucose), lactase (Galactose and glucose), or maltase (glucose and glucose).
Lactose intolerance is when a human produces little or none of the enzyme lactase, and lactose stays undigested. When this undigested lactose reaches the large intestine, micro-organisms break it down, making large volumes of gas, which can result in bloating, nausea, diarrhoea, and cramps. Lactose intolerance is not life threatening, and can be managed by an adapted diet.
1) The final product of starch digestion in the gut is alpha glucose.
2) Three enzymes produced by the epithelium of the small intestine are Sucrase, Lactase, and Maltase.