What enzymes do gastric juice contain.
What are their roles in digesting food

Dear Student,

Gastric juice is the name given to the digestive fluid released by the glands in the stomach. The main components of this juice are mucous, hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes , proteases mainly pepsinogen which gets active to form pepsin in the presence of hydrochloric acid. Digestive enzymes such as amylase, lipase, pepsin, trypsin, etc. help in the breaking down of complex food particles into simple ones. These simple particles can be easily absorbed by the blood and thus transported to all the cells of the body.

Role of HCl in stomach (basically in the process of digestion) is

1. It makes the environment of stomach acidic which is essential for the function of digestive enzymes of stomach.

2. It helps in the conversion of pepsinogen which is an inactive form into an active form called pepsin.

3. It also kills germs in the food.

Regards