Amylase is an enzyme that breaks starch down into
sugar. Amylase is present in human saliva, where it
begins the chemical process of digestion. Foods that
contain much starch but little sugar, such as rice and
potato, taste slightly sweet as they are chewed
because amylase turns some of their starch into sugar
in the mouth. Plants and some bacteria also produce
amylase. As diastase, amylase was the first enzyme to
be discovered and isolated (by Anselme Payen in
1833). All amylases are glycoside hydrolases and act
on α-1,4-glycosidic bonds. Amylases are significant
enzymes for their specific use in the industrial starch
conversion process. Amylolytic enzymes act on starch
and related oligo- and polysaccharides. In the food
industry amylolytic enzymes have a large scale of
applications, such as the production of glucose
syrups, high fructose corn syrups, maltose syrup,
reduction of viscosity of sugar syrups, reduction of
turbidity to produce clarified fruit juice for longer
shelf-life, solubilisation and saccharification of starch
in the brewing industry. The baking industry uses
amylases to delay the staling of bread and other
baked products; the paper industry uses amylases for
the reduction of starch viscosity to achieve the
appropriate coating of paper. Amylase enzyme is used
in the textile industry for warp sizing of textile fibers,
and used as a digestive aid in the pharmaceutical
industry.