Term used in biology and medicine to refer to the organic process by which the different elements are reduced to their simplest forms, to the molecules that made them up at a time before they became complex.
Catabolism, like anabolism and metabolism, are organic processes carried out by living beings to be able to live and better relate to the environment in which they are inserted and from where they obtain the different resources for their survival.
This involves the conversion of complex molecules into simpler ones. In the process, energy is released that the body is responsible for storing. Catabolism generally consists of redox (reduction-oxidation) reactions.
All living beings, including plants, carry out the process of catabolism, which is a substantial element of survival as it is responsible for the body's ability to obtain its necessary food from the outside and then assimilate it. For example, in the case of animals, the catabolism step is carried out during the digestive process: the animal in question consumes some type of more or less complex food and then the body will take charge of simplifying that food. Fruit) in different elements such as sugar, fat, proteins, fibers, etc., while these substances will be simplified in turn until they become chemical molecules much easier to assimilate.
When food enters the body, from the beginning, the larger molecules are broken down into the smaller ones. Digestion, in fact, involves catabolism. Once food particles are broken down into smaller nutrients, these chemical strains release energy through an oxidation process.
The catabolic process releases energy that works to help maintain proper muscle activity. The oxidation process that occurs during catabolism helps to synthesize the necessary chemical components: adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Multiple ATP molecules give cells the power to transfer more energy produced during the catabolic process to anabolic processes. In other words, catabolism acts as the sole provider of energy for good preservation and growth in almost all cells.
The sequence of reactions that is generated in the framework of catabolism or anabolism and is called the metabolic route. This step begins in an initial substrate, continues in intermediate metabolites and leads to various end products. According to the metabolic route followed and the nature of the molecule, catabolism develops reactions with different efficiency and the performance, therefore, varies.
