Product Comparison
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Notes & Special Requirements |
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| Breaks down sucrose | Breaks down sucrose | Breaks down starch | Breaks down lactose | Breaks down maltose | |||
Sucraid (QOL Medical) |
- | 8,500 IU/mL (International Units/millilitre) | - | - | - | May contain small amounts of papain |
Requires refrigeration |
Starchway (Intoleran)AU USA |
7500 IU/capsule (Invertase Units) | - | 2500 IU/capsule | - | - | The enzyme Invertase is derived from the yeast Saccharomyces Cerevisiae. Glucoamylase is derived from the mould Aspergillus Niger. | |
Invertase (Fermvertase)(LorAnn Oils) |
≥ 2400 SU/ml (Sumner Units) | - | - | - | - | Requires refrigeration, this is a candymaking (food grade) product | |
Digest GoldEnzymedica |
240 SU/capsule (Sumner Units) | - | 50 AGU/capsule (Glucoamylase Activity Units) | 900 ALU/capsule (Lactase Activity Units) | 200 DP° Diastase Units | Contains many digestive enzymes, but most are not specific to sucrose or maltose digestion. | |
Vital-Zymes Complete(Klaire Labs) |
400 SU (Sumner Units) | - | 30 AGU (Glucoamylase Activity Units) | 1,500 ALU (Lactase Activity Units) | 200 DP° Diastase Units | Contains many digestive enzymes, Including Amylase, Alpha-Amylase and Pullulanase. |
Note: not all enzymes are measured using the same type of units.
Some products use "U" or "IU" to indicate international unit for enzyme, which is a superceeded standardised unit of measure. Other products instead use IU as Invertase Units, which may be a different amount.
What is an Enzyme Unit?
Enzymes are measured not by weight, volume or quantity, but by the amount of work they are potentially able to do.
"1 U (μmol/min) is defined as the amount of the enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of one micromole of substrate per minute under the specified conditions of the assay method"
This means that the enzyme is measured under specific conditions like temperature, acidity, and the concentration of what it's supposed to digest to see how well it catalyses the chemical reaction.
It is not clear if all products are/are not measured under the same conditions, so it is difficult to compare directly those products stating different units of measurement.
The IU (International Unit) was superceeded in 1999 by the SI unit "katal" which is the enzyme catalysing the reaction of one mole of substrate per second. In practise, because it's such a large number, "nkatal" (or nanokatal) is used instead.
A special note about Δ
Klaire Labs use a footnote marker in their supplement facts panel which is a "Δ" symbol. This symbol refers to the footnote where they state that they use enzyme units from the Food Chemical Codex (FCC).
Amylase Units
DU One α-amylase dextrinizing unit is defined as the quantity of α-amylase that will dextrinize soluble starch in the presence of an excess of β-amylase at the rate of 1 g/h at 30°C. The degree of hydrolysis is determined by comparing the iodine color of the hydrolysate with that of the standard. (FCCVIII)
Glucoamylase Units
AGU One unit of glucoamylase activity (Amyloglucosidase) is defined as the amount of glucoamylase that will liberate 0.1μmol/minute of p-nitrophenol from the p-nitrophenyl-α-D-glucopyranoside (PNPG) solution under the conditions of the assay (pH 4.3 and 50°C). The PNPG liberated is measured against a quantity of a standard preparation of PNPG spectrophotometrically. (FCCVIII)
Lactase Units
ALU One lactase unit is defined as that quantity of enzyme that will liberate o-nitrophenol at a rate of 1μmol/minute under the conditions of the assay (pH 4.5 and 37°C). The hydrolysis of the o-nitrophenyl-β-D-galactopyranoside substrate is measured spectrophotometrically. (FCCVIII)
Invertase Units
Sumner Units
SU One Sumner Unit is the quantity of enzyme which will convert 1mg of sucrose to glucose and fructose in 5 minutes under the conditions of the assay (pH 4.5 and 20°C). The amount of monosaccharides produced by hydrolysis of the sucrose substrate is measured spectrophotometrically using a 3,5-Dinitrosalicylic Acid acid-phenol reagent correlated to a glucose standard. (FCCVIII)
Diastase Units
DP° One unit of diastase activity, expressed as degrees diastatic power, is defined as that amount of enzyme contained in 0.1mL of a 5% solution of the sample enzyme preparation that will produce sufficient reducing sugars to reduce 5mL of Fehling’s solution when the sample is incubated with 100mL of the substrate for 1 hour at 20°C. The reducing sugar groups produced from the hydrolysis of a starch substrate are measured in a titrimetric procedure using alkaline ferricyanide. (FCCVIII)