Answer to Question #322486 in General Chemistry for yow

Question

Enzymes catalyze the degradation of biomolecules, like starch and cellulose, into simple sugar glucose. Why do you think can humans digest starch but not cellulose?

Answer 1

The reason humans can't digest cellulose is because it has beta-1,4 bonds which our enzymes can't digest. Glucose on the other hand, has alpha-1,6 bonds which our enzymes can digest.