esterasen.
/ˈɛstəreɪs//ˈɛstəreɪz/ Biochemistry.
An enzyme which brings about the hydrolysis of an ester into the corresponding acid and alcohol.
ΚΠ
1916 A. E. Porter in Biochem. Jrnl. X. 523 (title) The distribution of esterases in the animal body.
1916 A. E. Porter in Biochem. Jrnl. X. 523 Esterases such as cholesteryl esterases and wax-splitting ferments, that is ferments which are able to split the esters of higher alcohols.
1949 H. W. Florey et al. Antibiotics II. xxxi. 1076 The blood of the mouse, rat and guinea-pig was shown to contain an esterase which hydrolysed the methyl and benzyl esters.
1956 Nature 28 Jan. 185/2 The esterase activity was expressed as the amount of carbon dioxide evolved from the bicarbonate buffer by the acid formed during the enzymatic hydrolysis of acetylthiocholine.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1972; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
<
n.1916