Question

Which enzyme converts starch to disaccharides?
A. Amylase
B. Gastrin
C. Secretin
D. Pepsin
E. Maltase

Answer 1

Hint: Starch tastes sweet when chewed for a long time or when it remains for a long time in the mouth.

Complete answer: Amylase is an enzyme responsible for the catalysis of the hydrolysis of starch. Starch is hydrolyzed to sugar. The saliva of human beings contains amylase. So, as we chew the food, the process of conversion of starch to sugars starts from there itself.
Later on, it is carried forward in the pancreas and which also secretes amylase along with the other pancreatic juices to hydrolyze the dietary starch to disaccharides and trisaccharides. These are then converted to glucose by the action of other enzymes.
Starch is generally present in most of the carbohydrates we take in. It gives a sweet taste to the food we eat.
Gastrin is responsible for the secretion of hydrochloric acid in the stomach. It is a peptide hormone responsible for maintaining an acidic pH of the stomach.
So, option (b) is incorrect.
Secretin is responsible for neutralizing the pH in the duodenum by optimizing the functionality of pancreatic amylase and pancreatic lipase.
So, option (c) is incorrect.
Pepsin is responsible for the digestion of proteins in the stomach.
So, option (d) is incorrect.
Maltase is responsible for the catalysis of disaccharides maltose to simple sugar glucose.
So, option (e) is incorrect.
So, the correct answer is “Option A”.

Additional Information:
The sweet taste of any starchy food that we eat is due to the action of amylase on starch in our mouth. In the mouth, amylase acts on the complex starch and hydrolyses it to form simple sugars. These simple sugars give us a sweet taste. It is a myth that starch tastes sweet. Starch does not taste sweet but the end products of the enzyme salivary amylase after hydrolysis of starch making it taste sweet.

Note: The enzyme amylase is the one that converts starch to disaccharides by hydrolyzing it to simple sugars.