Enzymes are complex globular protein catalysts that accelerate chemical reaction rates by factors of 1012-1020 over that of uncatalyzed reactions at temperatures around 37℃.By contrast, industrial catalysts (inorganic substances) are orders of magnitude less effective than enzymes under comparable conditions. For example the reduction of hydrogen peroxide catalyzed by cataloes ,occurs 10 million times faster than it does when catalyzed by colloidal platinum at 37℃. 

    The catalytic efficiency of enzymes is very high, whereby one molecule of enzymes can transform as many as 10,000-1,000,0000 molecules of molecule of substrate per minute. it is this catalytic efficient of enzymes at low temperature which makes them important to the food scientism. This means that foods can be processed or modified by enzymes at moderate temperature ,say 25-50℃,where food products would not otherwise undergo changes at a significant rate .It also means, however, that endogenous enzymes are active under these conditions as well, and this can be beneficial or deleterious

    Furthermore, enzymes because of their tremendous catalytic power and low activation energies are active at subfreezing temperatures and therefore can be important stimulants of degradative reactions in refrigerated or frozen foods. 

    Of course, one basis for heat processing is to denature and inactivate enzymes so that the food is not subjected to continuing enzymes activity. The food scientist must have an understanding of the denaturtion phenomenon in order to properly process foods. 

    Another important aspect of enzymes activity in addition to catalytic power is the specificity of enzymes reactions. Industrial catalysts lack this specificity of reaction, and so cannot be used for modifying specific components of a food system. The specificity of hydrogen ion catalysts, for example, is very broad, whereas many enzymes perform only a single function, such as hydrolysis of a single bond or bond type. It is this enzymes specificity, which allows the food scientist to selectively modify individual food components and no affect others. 

    The sensitivity and specificity of enzymes also make them important to the food scientist as analytic tools. Analysis for food constituents in many instances can be simplified using enzymes techniques, which are detailed by berg Meyer, and jailbait.
 
    Enzymes nomenclature 
 
    Over the years, the number of enzymes isolated and characterized has continued to increase at an enormous rate. Previously it was custom for individual who isolated and characterized the enzyme to also name it. However, in many instances the same name. Consequently, the nomenclature for enzymes because so chaotic that the international union of biochemistry instituted a commission on nomenclature and classification of enzymes to prepare a system of nomenclature that has become standard and should be used in enzyme work. Each enzyme is assigned a code number of four numerals, each separated by periods and arranged according to the following principles .

    The first numeral is the main division to which the enzyme belongs, i.e. (1) oxidoreductases, (2) transferases, (3) hydrolase, (4) lyases, (5) isomerases, and (6) ligases; the second is the subclass which identifies the enzyme in more specific terms; the third precisely defines the type of enzyme activity; and the fourth numerals clearly number of the enzyme in its sub-subclass. 

    Thus the first three numerals clearly designate the nature of the enzyme. For example, 1.2.3.4 denotes an oxidoreductase with an aldehyde as a donor and O2 as an acceptor, and it is the fourth numbered enzyme in particular series. In addition to the code number each enzyme is assigned a systematic name, which in many instances is too cumbersome to be used in the literature on a routine basis. Consequently, a trivial name has been recommended of common usage. The trivial name is sufficiently short for general use but is not necessarily very exact or systematic; in a great of the international union of biochemistry o nomenclature and classification of enzymes catalogued over 1700 enzymes each. 

    Aside from enzymes involved in postmortem and post harvest physiogy, few of the catalogued enzymes are of direct interest to the food scientist. By far the largest group of enzymes used in food processing is the hydrolases. A few oxidoreductases and isomerases are used, but hardly any transferees, assessor lipases.
 
    Definitions 
 
    The following terms are encountered in the enzymology literature.
 
    1. Holoenzyme: The protein portion of the enzyme and the coenzyme, it needed for catalytic activity.      

    2. Apoenzyme: The thermolabile protein component of the enzyme theat determines specificity.

    3. Coenzyme, cofactor, prosthetic group: These terms are often used interchangeably to describe cocatalsts which act in conjunction with the apoenzyme to catallyze a reaction. However, Bernhard draws a distinction between cofactors and coenzymes. Prosthetic groups are usually those cocatalysts that are very tightly bound to the protein.

    4. Isoenzymes or isozymes: Multiple forms of an enzyme occurring in the same species. They catalyze the same reaction and arise from genetically determined differences in primary structure.The term "multiple forms of the enzyme " should be used as a broad term covering all proteins possessing the same enzymic activity and occurring naturally in a single species.

    酶是復雜的球狀蛋白質催化劑，它在37℃左右的溫度下，能以1012-1020倍于非催化反應的速率加速化學反應。相比之下，工業催化劑(無機物質)的效率在相應條件下要比酶的效率低若干個數量級。例如，在37℃下，由過氧化氫酶催化的過氧化氫還原反應比由膠態鉑催化的該反應快1千萬倍。

    酶的催化效率非常高，一個酶分子每分鐘可轉化多達10,000-1,000,000個底物分子。正是酶的這種在較低溫度下的催化效果，使得酶成了食品科學家手里非常重要的法寶。這就是說食品可以在適中的溫度(譬如25-50℃)下利用酶進行加工或改性，而在同樣的溫度下，要不然就不會以明顯的速率發生變化。然而，這也意味著，內源的酶在同樣的條件下也有活性，這可能有益，也可能有害。

    同時，酶因其巨大的催化本領和較低的活化能而在冰點以下仍有活性，所以它可能是冷藏食品或冷凍食品降解反應的主要刺激物。

    當然，食品熱處理的理論根據之一就是使食品中的酶變性和鈍化，從而使食品不再繼續受到酶的作用。食品科學家必須對食品的酶變性現象有所了解，以便適當地對食品進行加工。

    除了催化本領以外，酶活性的另一重要方面是酶促反應的專一性。工業催化劑缺乏這種反應專一性，因此不能用于食品體系中一些特定組分的改性。例如，氫離子催化劑的催化范圍特性很寬，反之，許多酶執行的只是單一的功能，譬如一種單鍵或一種鍵型的水解。正是酶的這種專一性使得食品科學家能夠有選擇地改變食品的個別組分而不影響其他組分。

    酶的敏感性和專一性也使酶成為對食品科學家來說很重要的分析工具。許多情況下，食品成分的分析可以利用酶技術加以簡化，這方面伯格梅厄和圭鮑爾特有詳細的論述。       

     酶的命名多年來，分離和鑒定出來的酶的數目一直以驚人的速度在不斷增加。起先，習慣上是由分離和鑒定購的人給酶命名的。而這在許多情況下造成了給同一種酶取了不同的名稱，或者給不同的酶取了相同的名稱。因此，酶的命名變得相當混亂，于是國際生物化學聯合會成立了酶命名分類委員會，制訂了一種現已作為標準并在酶著作中必須予以采用的命名系統。該系統給每種酶以一個四位數的代碼，每個數字由句點分開，并依照下列規則排列。第一個數字表示該酶所屬的大類，即：(1)氧化還原酶類，(2)轉移酶類，(3)水解酶類，(4)裂合酶類，(5)異構酶類，(6)連接酶類。第二個數字表示酶所屬的亞類，它用更具體的條款確認該酶。第三個數字確切說明酶活性的類型。第四個數字是該酶在亞—亞類中的系列號。這樣，前三個數字就清楚地指出了酶的性質。例如，  1．2．3．4表示一種以醛為電子給體、以02為電子受體的氧化還原酶，  而且它在具體系列中的編號為第四。除了代號以外，還給予每種酶一個系統名稱，許多情況下這個名字太麻煩，不使用于常規文獻。因而，有人建議在普通場合下使用俗名。俗名作一般用時相當簡短，但不一定很確切，很系統；它是早已在大量例子中普遍使用的名字。國際生物化學聯合會1972年推薦列入《酶的命名和分類》目錄上的酶有l700多種，其中氧化還原酶、轉移酶和水解酶各有400多種。

    除了與動物宰后，植物采后生理變化有關的酶以外，載入目錄的其它酶幾乎沒有一    種是食品科學家直接感興趣的。食品加工中用到最多的一類酶是水解酶。氧化還原酶和    異構酶用得很少，而轉移酶、裂解酶或連接酶則幾乎沒有用到。

    名詞解釋

    在酶學文獻中經常遇到下列各詞：

    1．全酶：酶的蛋白質部分以及酶催化活力必要時的輔酶。

    2．酶蛋白：酶中決定酶特異性的不耐熱的蛋白質部分。

    3．輔酶、輔助因子、輔基：這些詞經常不加選擇地用來描述與酶蛋白同時作用以催化某—一反應的輔催化劑。然而，本哈德提出了輔助因子與輔酶的區別。輔基通常是與    蛋白質結合得非常緊的輔催化劑。

    4．同功酶；同一物種來源的某種酶的多種形式。它們催化同一反應，并且多種形式來源于遺傳決定的一級結構上的差異。“酶的多種形式”一詞應作為廣義的詞使用，包    括了所有具有相同催化活性并天然存在于單一物種中的所有蛋白質。