Give four reasons why salivary amylase cannot act on proteins.

The enzyme known as amylase acts on a specific substrate
which is starch. The chemical reaction of starch begins in the mouth as it begins
to hydrolyze into maltose, a sugar. Amylase, as all other enzymes, are very specific.
One reason is that their 3-dimensional shape has a particular active site that binds to
a substrate based on the molecular shape, much like a key fits to a particular lock.
Other factors that affect enzyme specificity are charge as well as the hydrophilic and
hydrophobic characteristics of both enzyme and substrate.