1. Biomolecules are molecules that occur naturally in living organisms.

Biomolecules include
macromolecules like proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and nucleic acids. It also includes small
molecules like primary and secondary metabolites and natural products. Biomolecules consists
mainly of carbon and hydrogen with nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur, and phosphorus. Biomolecules
are very large molecules of many atoms, that are covalently bound together
2. Carbohydrates are good source of energy. Carbohydrates (polysaccharides) are long chains of
sugars. Monosaccharides are simple sugars that are composed of 3-7 carbon atoms. They have
a free aldehyde or ketone group, which acts as reducing agents and are known as reducing
sugars. Disaccharides are made of two monosaccharides. The bonds shared between two
monosaccharides is the glycosidic bonds. Monosaccharides and disaccharides are sweet,
crystalline and water soluble substances.Polysaccharides are polymers of monosaccharides.
They are unsweet, and complex carbohydrates.They are insoluble in water and are not in
crystalline form. Example: glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose, starch, cellulose etc.
Lipids are composed of long hydrocarbon chains. Lipid molecules hold a large amount of energy
and are energy storage molecules. Lipids are generally esters of fatty acids and are building
blocks of biological membranes. Most of the lipids have a polar head and non-polar tail. Fatty
acids can be unsaturated and saturated fatty acids. Example of lipids: oils, fats, phospholipids,
glycolipids,
Proteins are heteropolymers of stings of amino acids. Amino acids are joined together by the
peptide bond which is formed in between the carboxyl group and amino group of successive
amino acids. Proteins are formed from 20 different amino acids, depending on the number of
amino acids and the sequence of amino acids.
Nucleic acids are organic compounds with heterocyclic rings. Nucleic acids are made of polymer
of nucleotides. Nucleotides consists of nitrogenous base, a pentose sugar and a phosphate
group. A nucleoside is made of nitrogenous base attached to a pentose sugar. The nitrogenous
bases are adenine, guanine, thyamine, cytosine and uracil. Polymerized nucleotides form DNA
and RNA which are genetic material.
3. oxidation-reduction (redox) reaction is a type of chemical reaction that involves a transfer of
electrons between two species. An oxidation-reduction reaction is any chemical reaction in which
the oxidation number of a molecule, atom, or ion changes by gaining or losing an electron. Redox
reactions are common and vital to some of the basic functions of life,
including photosynthesis, respiration, combustion, and corrosion or rusting.
4. Extremely high or low pH values generally result in complete loss of activity for most enzymes.
pH is also a factor in the stability of enzymes. As with activity, for each enzyme there is also a
region of pH optimal stability.
5. Like most chemical reactions, the rate of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction increases as the
temperature is raised. A ten degree Centigrade rise in temperature will increase the activity of
most enzymes by 50 to 100%. Variations in reaction temperature as small as 1 or 2 degrees may
introduce changes of 10 to 20% in the results. In the case of enzymatic reactions, this is
complicated by the fact that many enzymes are adversely affected by high temperatures. As
shown in Figure 13, the reaction rate increases with temperature to a maximum level, then
abruptly declines with further increase of temperature. Because most animal enzymes rapidly
become denatured at temperatures above 40°C, most enzyme determinations are carried out
somewhat below that temperature.

6. Increasing Substrate Concentration increases the rate of reaction. This is because more
substrate molecules will be colliding with enzyme molecules, so more product will be
formed.