Question

What is the role of lysozyme present in saliva?

Answer 1

Hint: The digestion of food starts from the Mouth in which an important extracellular fluid is presently known as saliva. Saliva is an important fluid containing electrolytes, enzymes, proteins, immunoglobulin and many more with the antibacterial enzyme.

Complete answer:
Saliva plays an important role in digestion as it is the first place from which digestion starts. In the mouth, the digestion of starch (cooked) preferably and some part of fat is digested. For this, the saliva contains many substances that help in the digestion of food like enzymes that is lingual lipase, a variety of electrolytes that are sodium, calcium, magnesium, phosphates and many more, proteins that act as a buffer, immunoglobulin are an anti-bacterial, antifungal, antibacterial substance that is lysozyme, lactoferrin, calprotectin, to increase the lubrication mucin is present and the most of it is made up of water that helps in digestion of food as well as it enhances the taste. The daily release of saliva is approximately 1 to 1.5 litres. Saliva is secreted with the help of three glands: Parotid gland, submaxillary gland and sublingual gland. The most secretive gland is the parotid gland as it secretes about two-thirds volume of total saliva.
Hence, the role of lysozyme in the saliva is to kill the bacteria that come into the oral cavity with food as lysozyme is an antibacterial enzyme.

Note:
The saliva is important for the digestion in the mouth as it provides lubrication to the mouth and helps in easy swallowing, it helps in bolus formation, it enhances taste, and antimicrobial action help in defence mechanism and the other functions is that it helps in speech and henceforth in social interaction.