Question

Caladium (elephant ears) plants, if eaten, inhibit salivary amylase because they produce a chemical that binds to the active site of amylase. this is an example of

Answer 1

The inhibition of enzymes can occur in three ways: competitive, noncompetitive and substrate inhibition. The enzyme here is the amylase. The substrate could be the chemical and the nutrients that could be broken down from the plants. In this case, the chemical is a competitive inhibitor, since it 'overtakes' the nutrients in the active site of the enzyme. Then, the enzyme could not do its job of digesting the plant.