An enzyme or ferment that acts to break down or decompose organic matter, particularly in old medical or chemical terminology.
From 'apo-' (away, apart) and 'zymase' (from Greek 'zyme' meaning leaven or ferment), describing an enzyme that breaks things apart through fermentation.
This word is basically a fossil from medieval biochemistry—it describes enzymes that break things down, but we now have much more precise names for the thousands of different enzymes.
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