PEPSIN

n.

Powerful enzyme in gastric juice (see stomach ) that partially digests protein s in food.

Glands in the stomach lining make pepsinogen, a zymogen (enzyme precursor) converted to pepsin by the hydrochloric acid in gastric juice. Pepsin is active only in the acid environment of the stomach ( pH 1.5–2.5 or less); it is ineffective in the intestine (pH 7, neutral). It is used commercially in some cheese making, in the leather industry to remove hair and residual tissue from hides, and in the recovery of silver from discarded photographic films by digesting the gelatin layer that holds the silver.