Amylase is a carbohydrate splitting enzyme. It is normally secreted within body for facilitating digestion. It is also utilized for preparing various foods or supplements, which are extensively used in PERT (pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy) and also for treating indigestion.

Chemistry

• Amylase is a calcium metalloenzymes, which contains calcium as a cofactor
• It is protein in nature
• Three types of amylase are found, which include alpha amylase, beta amylase and gama amylase
• Alpha amylase in found in humans as well as in animals whereas beta and gama amylase are found in animals and microbes
• It generally helps to break polysaccharides at their α 1, 4-glycosidic bond and generates disaccharides and monosaccharides
• 6.7 to 7 is considered as the optimum pH and 63 to 70°C is recognized as the optimum temperature for its enzymatic activity

Amylase rich foods (ARF)

Foods which are extremely rich in amylase are known as amylase rich food. They are basically produced by germinating cereal flours.

Below steps will discuss the easiest method of preparing amylase rich food in home –

• Whole grains, which are cleaned properly and free from bugs should be selected
• Then water should be added three times of the grains and followed by stepping for overnight or at least for 8 hours
• Then the excess water should be drained
• After that the grains should be placed in a dark and cool place and allowed for germination. It will take about 1 to 2 days for germinating
• Water should be sprinkled at a frequent interval until they start sprouting
• After completing the germination the grains should be subjected for roasting that makes them dry
• Then they should be grinded to form powder, which should be stored in an air tight container at room temperature
• This powder should be added to any kind of food during preparation, which ultimately helps to make the food amylase enriched

Relationship between ARF and child nutrition

• Amylase rich food plays significant role in promoting the nutritional status of a child
• Generally nutritional need of an infant (up to six months) is exclusively met by breast milk but it has seen that after six month of age breast milk is not enough for meeting the need of infants hence other food should be included in their diet apart from breast milk, this is known as weaning
• As infants have smaller stomach capacity thus they feel difficulties in digesting weaned food so it is better to provide ARF to them as ARF is full in amylase enzyme that helps them to digest food easily
• On the other hand as ARF is prepared by germinating cereal grains (like wheat, ragi, rice, barley etc) hence its utilization in weaning food help to increase its nutritive as well as energy value that ultimately facilitate infant growth

Health benefits

Role on digestive health

• It plays significant role in promoting digestion as it helps to split the complex form of food especially carbohydrate into simple and absorbable form
• Salivary gland and pancreas is the main source of amylase enzyme in human. Amylase secreted from salivary gland is known as salivary amylase or ptyalin and amylase secreted from pancreas in known as pancreatic amylase
• Ptyalin helps in the digestion of boiled starch whereas pancreatic amylase helps in the digestion of other complex carbohydrates and subsequently produces glucose (end product of carbohydrate digestion)
• Glucose is then absorbed in the blood vessels and utilized by the body for metabolism
• Adequate concentration of amylase in body not only helps to smooth the digestive process but also helps to improve the symptoms of gastrointestinal disorders

Role on regulating blood sugar concentration

• Amylase plays significant role in carbohydrate metabolism and thus it shows vital effect on those conditions (like diabetes mellitus) where an impairment of carbohydrate metabolism occurred
• It has seen that individuals who have high blood sugar concentration have lower amylase activity
• Proper regulation of amylase activity is very helpful for maintaining blood sugar level and also helps to reserve the symptoms of diabetes mellitus

Role on energy production

• Body needs energy for survival as well as for performing its regular functions and basically it fulfills its need of energy from food
• Food is digested at first then absorbed into blood and finally metabolized by the body to produce energy
• Carbohydrate is an important food constituent that helps to yield energy rapidly. Generally carbohydrates are digested into glucose which directly gets absorbed into blood and produces energy (ATP) instantly after metabolism
• Amylase helps to make the carbohydrate digestion effective and fast hence helps in rapid energy production from carbohydrate sources

Role on regulating stress

• Chronic stress is one of the most horrible thing that affects the health unfavorably and it should be controlled for achieving a better life
• It has seen that concentration of amylase acts as an effective indicator for measuring stress in human
• There is a relation between the concentration of amylase and stress hormone. Increase in amylase concentration or consuming amylase enriched food significantly reduces the level of stress hormone (cortisol or catecholamines) in body

Role on cancer treatment

• Incorporation of amylase enzyme in cancer treatment plan is very effective for improving the health holistically
• Especially pancreatic amylase has potent anti-carcinogenic activities, which help to beat cancer effectively

Role on immune system

• It plays vital role in supporting all of the immune processes of body
• It is also very beneficial for treating autoimmune diseases as it helps to decrease the level of those inflammatory molecules within body, which are responsible for triggering autoimmune responses

Role on preventing inflammation

• Consumption of amylase rich food helps to make the body more able to control inflammation, swelling and irritation
• It is very effective more improving the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis

Role on preventing ageing

• Individual who produce more amylase enzymes or consume amylase rich foods have comparatively lower risk of developing oxidative damages
• It also helps to delay the ageing process

Recent findings

• Recent studies have shown that alpha amylase inhibitor plays significant role in controlling the postprandial blood sugar concentration among diabetic patients. Formulation of cereal based food by utilizing alpha amylase inhibitor is an imperative approach in the dietary management of diabetes patient (Gong et al., 2020)
• According to current studies it has came to know that various herbal extract such as lavender flower extract, lavender leaf extracts, oleanolic acid show significant alpha amylase inhibition activities which are responsible for decreasing the prevalence of metabolic syndrome like diabetes, obesity etc (Agatonovic-Kustrin et al., 2020)

• Current researches have shown that consumption of pu-erh tea (an important type of fermented tea) is exceptionally useful for decreasing the susceptibility of postprandial hyperglycemia as pu-erh tea exerts strong inhibitory effects on alpha amylase as well as on alpha glucosidase (Yang et al., 2019)
• Recent researches have shown that α amylase obtained from Antarctic psychrotolerant fungus shows advantageous effects on bakery industry. According to the research, it has seen that magnetic immobilization of α amylase is closely associated with improving the thermostability as well as the reusability of  α amylase that significantly prop up industrial production (He et al., 2017)

Agarwal, P. and Gupta, R., 2016. Alpha-amylase inhibition can treat diabetes mellitus. Res. Rev. J. Med. Health Sci, 5(4), pp.1-8.

Agatonovic-Kustrin, S., Kustrin, E., Gegechkori, V. and Morton, D.W., 2020. Bioassay-guided identification of α-amylase inhibitors in herbal extracts. Journal of Chromatography A, p.460970.

Gong, L., Feng, D., Wang, T., Ren, Y., Liu, Y. and Wang, J., 2020. Inhibitors of α‐amylase and α‐glucosidase: Potential linkage for whole cereal foods on prevention of hyperglycemia. Food Science & Nutrition.

He, L., Mao, Y., Zhang, L., Wang, H., Alias, S.A., Gao, B. and Wei, D., 2017. Functional expression of a novel α-amylase from Antarctic psychrotolerant fungus for baking industry and its magnetic immobilization. BMC biotechnology, 17(1), p.22.

Sun, L., Wang, Y. and Miao, M., 2020. Inhibition of α-amylase by polyphenolic compounds: Substrate digestion, binding interactions and nutritional intervention. Trends in Food Science & Technology.

Yang, C.Y., Yen, Y.Y., Hung, K.C., Hsu, S.W., Lan, S.J. and Lin, H.C., 2019. Inhibitory effects of pu-erh tea on alpha glucosidase and alpha amylase: a systemic review. Nutrition & diabetes, 9(1), pp.1-6.