The Nature of Enzymes
Enzymes are catalysts which increase the rate of otherwise slow or imperceptible reactions without undergoing any net change in their structure. These enzymes are proteins and mediate all synthetic and degradative reactions carried out by living organisms.
They are very efficient catalysts, often far superior to conventional chemical catalysts, for which reason they are being employed increasingly in today's high technological society, as a highly significant part of biotechnological expansion.
Enzymes have a number of distinct advantages over conventional chemical catalysts. Foremost among these are their specificity and selectivity not only for particular reactions but also in their discrimination between similar parts of molecules (regiospecificity) or optical isomers (stereospecificity).


