HUMAN NUTRITION

Detailed explanation-1: -Pepsin is a stomach enzyme that serves to digest proteins found in ingested food. Gastric chief cells secrete pepsin as an inactive zymogen called pepsinogen. Parietal cells within the stomach lining secrete hydrochloric acid that lowers the pH of the stomach. A low pH (1.5 to 2) activates pepsin.

Detailed explanation-2: -Of these five components, pepsin is the principal enzyme involved in protein digestion. It breaks down proteins into smaller peptides and amino acids that can be easily absorbed in the small intestine.

Detailed explanation-3: -An enzyme made in the stomach that breaks down proteins in food during digestion. Stomach acid changes a protein called pepsinogen into pepsin.

Detailed explanation-4: -Pepsin cleaves peptide bonds in the amino-terminal side of the cyclic amino acid residues (tyrosine, phenylalanine, and tryptophan), breaking the polypeptide chains into smaller peptides (Fange and Grove, 1979).

Detailed explanation-5: -Specificity: Pepsin hydrolyzes peptide bonds between large hydrophobic amino acid residues, whereas trypsin hydrolyzes peptide bonds at the C-terminal side of lysine or arginine. Function: Pepsin acts on proteins and converts them into peptones, while trypsin converts peptones into polypeptides.