Salivary amylase is an enzyme found in the mouth. It speeds up the reaction of breaking down starch into sugars. Why will salivary amylase only speed up the break down of carbohydrates and not proteins??

A* The enzyme is the wrong substrate for proteins.

B* Proteins will not fit into the active site of the amylase enzyme.

C* Proteins will never get broken down into smaller molecules like carbohydrates.Salivary amylase is an enzyme found in the mouth. It speeds up the reaction of breaking down starch into sugars. Why will salivary amylase only speed up the break down of carbohydrates and not proteins?

The salivary amylase, is an enzyme contained in the saliva, hence in the mouth. It can break the bonds between the glucose molecules in the starch so the body can acess the glucose for energy, but can not break the protein bonds.

Proteins are made up of a long chain of aminoacids that will break only if the peptide bond is degraded or the protein is hydrolyzed. The pepsines are the enzymes that degrade the proteins in the stomach.