What is the role of HCl in digestion?

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Answer 1 · 2017-04-19T05:50:27

The role of $HCl$ $"HCl"$ in digestion;

When the bolus enters the stomach, the contraction and expansion of the muscles of the wall of the stomach bring about churning movement with the help of $HCl$ $"HCl"$ present in the gastric juice.
In the presence of $HCl$ $"HCl"$ , pepsinogen gets converted into its active form i.e. pepsin that hydrolyzes protein into peptides.
In infants, in presence of $HCl$ $"HCl"$ , rennin gets activated into form i.e. prorennin that hydrolyses the soluble milk protein casein into paracasein.
Gastric juice also secretes lipase enzyme that converts small amounts of fat into monoglycerides and fatty acids because the enzyme is sensitive to free acid and is destroyed by $HCl$ $"HCl"$ .