The Collaborative International Dictionary
Diastase \Di"a*stase\, n. [Gr. ? separation, fr. ?, ? to stand apart; dia` through + ?, ?, to stand, set: cf. F. diastase. Cf. Diastasis.] (Physiol. Chem.) A soluble enzyme, capable of converting starch and dextrin into sugar.
Note: The name is more particularly applied to that enzyme formed during the germination of grain, as in the malting of barley; but it is also occasionally used to designate the amylolytic enzyme contained in animal fluids, as in the saliva.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. (context enzyme English) Any one of a group of enzymes which catalyses the breakdown of starch into maltose; mostly amylase
Wikipedia
A diastase (; from Greek διαστασις, "separation") is any one of a group of enzymes which catalyses the breakdown of starch into maltose. Alpha amylase degrades starch to a mixture of the disaccharide maltose, the trisaccharide maltotriose, which contains three α (1-4)-linked glucose residues, and oligosaccharides known as dextrins that contain the α (1-6)-linked glucose branches.
Diastase was the first enzyme discovered.See:
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It was extracted from malt solution in 1833 by Anselme Payen and Jean-François Persoz, chemists at a French sugar factory.Payen & Persoz (1833), page 77. Payen and
Persoz found diastase in the seeds of barley, oats, and wheat, as well as in potatoes (Payen & Persoz (1833), page 76). The name "diastase" comes from the Greek word διάστασις (diastasis) (a parting, a separation) because, when beer mash is heated, the enzyme causes the starch in the barley seed to transform quickly into soluble sugars and hence the husk to separate from the rest of the seed. Today, "diastase" refers to any α-, β-, or γ- amylase (all of them hydrolases) that can break down carbohydrates.
The commonly used -ase suffix for naming enzymes was derived from the name diastase.
When used as a pharmaceutical drug, diastase has the ATC code .
Amylases can also be extracted from other sources including plants, saliva and milk.