Final answer:
An enzyme would decrease the time required to make 1 mg of product by increasing the activity of specific enzymes, thus lowering the activation energy and speeding up the reaction.
Step-by-step explanation:
The effect of an enzyme on the time to make 1 mg of product would be to decrease the time. Enzymes are biological catalysts that increase the activity of specific chemical reactions without being consumed in the process. Essentially, enzymes work by lowering the activation energy required for a reaction to occur, thus speeding up the reaction. For instance, if the concentration of an enzyme is increased in a reaction where there is an excess of substrate, the rate of the reaction increases steadily, indicating a shorter time to reach a certain amount of product.
Without enzymes, biochemical reactions in living organisms would occur at much slower rates, which can be so low that they are not compatible with life. This has to do with the time scales characteristic of living systems on Earth. Inhibitors can decrease the activity of enzymes, leading to slower reaction times, while an increase in substrate concentration or enzyme amount can lead to faster reactions as long as other factors are constant.
It's also important to note that enzymes do not change the equilibrium or final amount of product of the reaction; they only make it possible to reach equilibrium much faster. This is why when enzymes are not functioning, as is the case with certain inhibitors like poisons or diseases, reactions can proceed (but much more slowly) or even stop, significant altering the time required to produce a specified amount of product.