ABSTRACT
The evolution of enzyme technology can be divided in four phases, i.e., empiric, descriptive, quantitative and applied with planning. The descriptive phase occurred throughout the 19th century and corresponded to a period in which enzyme activity began to be studied with more attention and methodology. The quantitative phase, which refers to the establishment of mathematical models for quantifying enzyme activity, began at the end of 19th century, with the first quantitative model – known as Michaelis-Menten’s model – established in 1913 and improved by Briggs and Haldane in 1926. In enzyme-catalyzed reactions, enzymes, in general, specifically accept one substance as the substrate. The ability to quantify enzyme activity is essential if an enzyme is to be used in a cost-effective way in an industrial process or other analytical methods. Theoretically, since enzyme catalysts are regenerated at the end of a reaction, only a minimum amount of enzyme should be required to catalyze any amount of substrate.
