An enzyme that breaks down starch into simpler sugars, found in saliva, pancreas, and many other organisms.
From Latin amylum (starch) plus the suffix -ase used to name all enzymes. This suffix came from Greek diastasis and was standardized by biochemists to denote any molecule that catalyzes reactions.
Every enzyme name ends in -ase (amylase, lipase, protease), which is why scientists instantly know an unknown word ending in -ase is an enzyme—this 100-year-old naming convention is one of biochemistry's most useful organizational systems.
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