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- Hydrochloric Acid: Physiological Functions and Clinical Implications
- Human digestive system - Proteins | Britannica
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"In the stomach, HCl's primary function is to maintain a sterile environment and to initiate the conversion of pepsinogen to pepsin."
- Advanced Nutrition and Human Metabolism (978-0-357-45006-2)
"In addition to creating an acidic environment, hydrochloric acid has several other functions in gastric juice, including:
- Converting or activating the zymogen pepsinogen to form pepsin (needed for protein digestion)
- Denaturing proteins (i.e., destructing or “uncoiling” the tertiary and secondary protein structures to expose the protein’s interior peptide bonds so pepsin can perform its enzymatic functions)
- Releasing various nutrients such as minerals from organic complexes so absorption can occur
- Acting as a bactericide agent (needed to kill bacteria ingested along with food)."
- Converting or activating the zymogen pepsinogen to form pepsin (needed for protein digestion)
- Denaturing proteins (i.e., destructing or “uncoiling” the tertiary and secondary protein structures to expose the protein’s interior peptide bonds so pepsin can perform its enzymatic functions)
- Releasing various nutrients such as minerals from organic complexes so absorption can occur
- Acting as a bactericide agent (needed to kill bacteria ingested along with food)."
- Human digestive system - Proteins | Britannica
"The pepsins account for about 10 to 15 percent of protein digestion. They are most active in the first hour of digestion, and their ability to break down protein is restricted by the necessity for an acidic environment with a pH between 1.8 and 3.5. The trypsins (proteolytic enzymes secreted by the pancreas) are much more powerful than pepsins, so the greater part of protein digestion occurs in the duodenum and upper jejunum. Therefore, even after total removal of the stomach, protein digestion usually is not impaired."
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