Hydrolysis

Hydrolysis (; from Ancient Greek hydro- 'water' and lysis 'to unbind') is any chemical reaction in which a molecule of water breaks one or more chemical bonds. The term is used broadly for substitution and elimination reactions in which water is the nucleophile. Biological hydrolysis is the cleavage of biomolecules where a water molecule is consumed to effect the separation of a larger molecule into component parts. When a carbohydrate is broken into its component sugar molecules by hydrolysis (e.g., sucrose being broken down into glucose and fructose), this is recognized as saccharification. Hydrolysis reactions can be the reverse of dehydration synthesis (a specific type of condensation reaction) in which two molecules join into a larger one and eject a water molecule. Thus hydrolysis adds water to break down molecules, whereas condensation joins molecules through the removal of water.