Enzymes and their applications / By Dr. Jean Effront ... English translation by Samuel C. Prescott ... v. 1. The enzymes of the carbohydrates. The oxidases.

  • Effront, Jean, 1850-1931.
Date:
1902
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Enzymes and their applications / By Dr. Jean Effront ... English translation by Samuel C. Prescott ... v. 1. The enzymes of the carbohydrates. The oxidases. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    sociation must be produced, and, by osmosis, the acid must pass through the cell membrane and accumulate in a certain •quantity. Thus the acidity is seen to be a result of the dis- sociation of the very dilute salt solution and of its passage, by osmosis, through the cell membrane. This is a very striking example of a physical condition favoring reaction. The most convincing example of the intervention of min- eral substances is furnished by the results obtained in agricul- ture by the use of chemical fertilizers. When one places at the disposal of the cells relatively small quantities of phos- phate, the quantity of protein matter produced in the plants increases considerably. The plant-cell needs, then, to carry on its synthetic work, the presence of mineral substances, which form organo-metallic combinations; combinations which, having more affinity than the organic substance un- combined with the mineral substance, enter more easily into reaction. But we also know another extensive series of bio-chem- ical reactions which are produced without intervention of physical factors or mineral substances, and are due to the prc~cce of chemical substances of a particular nature which we call enzymes. The study of these substances, of their manner of secretion, and of their method of action will form the object of the present work. The enzymes, soluble ferments, zymases, or diastases are active organic substances, secreted by cells, and have the property, under certain conditions, of facilitating chemical reactions between certain bodies, without entering into the composition of the definite products which result. These substances play a very important part in the phenomena of assimilation and of disassimilation of foods. In fact, most of the foods which occur in nature at the disposition of men, lower animals, or plants, are not directly assimilable; they require the intervention of a diastase in order to be trans- formed into substances assimilable and suitable for the formation of new tissues.