Lexic.us

Definition of Diastase

1. n. A soluble, nitrogenous ferment, capable of converting starch and dextrin into sugar.

Definition of Diastase

1. Noun. (enzyme) Any one of a group of enzymes which catalyses the breakdown of starch into maltose; mostly amylase ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Diastase

1. an enzyme [n -S] - See also: enzyme

Medical Definition of Diastase

1. A soluble, nitrogenous ferment, capable of converting starch and dextrin into sugar. The name is more particularly applied to that ferment formed during the germination of grain, as in the malting of barley; but it is also occasionally used to designate the amylolytic ferment contained in animal fluids, as in the saliva. Origin: Gr. Separation, fr, to stand apart; through +, to stand, set: cf. F. Diastase. Cf. Diastasis. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Diastase

Literary usage of Diastase

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Journal of the American Chemical Society by American Chemical Society (1898)
"boiling with fifty cc. of water, received diastase of each kind as above. ... End of six hours : Taka-diastase, still a bluish green color showing small ..."

2. Allen's Commercial Organic Analysis: A Treatise on the Properties, Modes of by Alfred Henry Allen (1917)
"The results given in-the following table show that this is actually true and that the use of taka-diastase affords an accurate means of estimating starch in ..."

3. Report of the Annual Meeting (1904)
"Action of Malt diastase on Potato-starch Paste. By BERNARD F. DAVIS, B.Sc., ... Special experiments, employing the same quantities of diastase which has not ..."

4. A Dictionary of Applied Chemistry by Thomas Edward Thorpe (1921)
"LJS diastase is very widely distributed in plants and in animals. ... In France, the word ' diastase ' is used as a general term for all enzymes, ..."

5. Hand-book of Chemistry by Leopold Gmelin, Henry Watts (1862)
"If the diastase-solution is heated to at least 54°, the granules burst without tearing, and the diastase then acts, not through the envelopes of the ..."

6. A Dictionary of Chemistry and the Allied Branches of Other Sciences by Henry Watts (1870)
"Neither potatoes nor cereals contain diastase before germination. ... The proportion of diastase in malt does not exceed 0-002 to 0-003 per cent. ..."

7. American Druggist (1888)
"The systematic dehydration thus directed tobe effected by means of absolute alcohol and ether is necessary in order to obtain the diastase as a flocculent, ..."

8. A Textbook of pharmacology and therapeutics, or, the Action of drugs in by Arthur Robertson Cushny (1918)
"diastase. Several amylolytic or sugar-forming ferments have been used more or less in therapeutics, the first of these being the diastase or enzyme of malt, ..."

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