ptyalin
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of ptyalin
1835–45; < Greek ptýal ( on ) spittle, saliva + -in 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
With age, a digestive change definitely involving an enzyme occurs in the salivary glands : they secrete less ptyalin, an enzyme that converts starch into sugars.
From Time Magazine Archive
The action of the ptyalin commences with great promptness, and sugar has been detected, it is said, within half a minute after the starch was placed in the mouth.
From Hygienic Physiology : with Special Reference to the Use of Alcoholic Drinks and Narcotics by Steele, Joel Dorman
The saliva, which contains ptyalin, is secreted in the mouth.
From Maintaining Health Formerly Health and Efficiency by Alsaker, R. L.
Though many azotized substances in a state of decomposition exert a similar agency, yet it is possessed by ptyalin in a much greater degree.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 34, August, 1860 by Various
Such is the agency of ptyalin in the saliva, of pepsin in the gastric juice, and of pancreatin or trypsin in the secretion of the pancreas, in the processes of digestion.
From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
