What happens in the process of starch digestion?

I'll start from the point when starch enters the buccal cavity a.k.a. the mouth.

When starch enters the mouth, it is acted upon by salivary amylase, an enzyme that breaks starch down into maltose. It is not fully digested however, because by the time it reaches the stomach, the enzymes would not have the time to fully break it down.

In the stomach, low PH levels caused by the hydrochloric acid denatures the salivary amylase, rendering it useless for starch digestion. The starch remains in the stomach, until it's churning action turns starch into chyme (liquefied food). The purpose of this is to increase the surface area to volume ratio, so as to increase the efficiency of enzyme action.

The starch leaves the stomach, and enters the small intestine. In the intestine, it is acted upon by the intestinal amylase, and the pancreatic amylase, which fully breaks down the starch into maltose. Afterwhich, the maltose is acted upon by maltase, which breaks it down into glucose. When this is done, it can be absorbed easily by the villi into the bloodstream.

If you need more elaboration, I'll get out my biology notes on enzymes! Email me. =)

Process Of Starch Digestion

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What happens in the process of starch digestion?