Enzymes consist of various types of proteins that work to drive the chemical reaction required for a specific action or nutrient.
The chemicals that are transformed with the help of enzymes are called substrates. In the absence of enzymes, these chemicals are called reactants.
To illustrate the speed and efficiency of enzymes, substrates can be transformed to usable products at the rate of ten times per second.
Considering that there are an estimated 75,000 different enzymes in the human body, these chemical reactions are performed at an amazing rate.
On the other hand, in the absence of enzymes, reactants may take hundreds of years to convert into a usable product, if they are able to do so at all.
This is why enzymes are crucial in the sustenance of life on earth.
Enzymes are usually very specific as to which reactions they catalyze and the substrates that are involved in these reactions.
Complementary shape, charge and hydrophilic/hydrophobic characteristics of enzymes and substrates are responsible for this specificity.
sources: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-enzymes.htm & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enzyme
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