Importance and Scope of

Biochemistry
■ The importance of biochemistry is immense and
indispensable in our daily life activities.

■ It is used in clinical diagnosis, manufacture of various

biological products, treatment of diseases, in nutrition,
agriculture, etc.

■ The study of biochemistry helps one understand the actual

chemical concepts of biology.
 Importance of Biochemistry in Medicine
■ Physiology: Biochemistry helps one understand the
biochemical changes and related physiological alteration in the
body. Pathology of any disease is studied through biochemical
changes.
■ Pathology: Based on the symptoms described by the patient,
the physician can get a clue on the biochemical change and the
associated disorder. For example, if a patient complains about
stiffness in small joints, then the physician may predict it to be
gout and get confirmed by evaluating uric acid levels in the
blood. As uric acid accumulation in blood results in gout.
■ Nutrition deficiency: In the present scenario, many people
rely on taking multivitamin & minerals for better health. The
function and role of the vitamin in the body are described
only by biochemistry.

■ Hormonal deficiency: There are many disorders due to

hormonal imbalance in especially women and children. The
formation, role of hormones in the normal body function is
taught in biochemistry by which the physician can understand
the concerned problem during treatment.
 Importance of Biochemistry in Nursing

■ In nursing, the importance of clinical biochemistry is

invaluable. When a patient is in the hospital nurses, need to
keep a watch on how his condition is progressing through
clinical biochemistry. That is the treatment for helping him
recover from said condition etc. Almost all the diseases or
disorders have some biochemical involvement. So the
diagnosis of any clinical condition is easily possible by
biochemical estimations.
■ Kidney function test: For example in kidney disorders, other
chemotherapy treatment, etc. urine test help understand
the extent of excretion of drugs or other metabolites, the
change in pH, the color of urine, etc.
■ Blood test: In diabetes, biochemical analytical test for
blood glucose level (above 150mg/deciliter) helps one
understand the severity of diabetes disorder. Another
biochemical analysis for ketones bodies in urine also
indicates the stage of diabetes. The appearance of ketone
bodies or ketone urea is mostly the last stage of diabetes.
■ Liver function tests: help understand the type of disease or
damage to the liver, the effect of any medication on the liver,
etc.

■ Serum cholesterol test: Evaluation of blood cholesterol level

and other lipoproteins helps to understand the proneness of
the patient to cardiovascular diseases.
 Importance of Biochemistry in Agriculture
■ In agriculture, biochemistry plays a valuable role in farming,
fishery, poultry, sericulture, beekeeping, etc.
■ Prevent diseases: It helps for prevention, treatment of diseases
and also increases the production or yield.
■ Enhance growth: Biochemistry gives an idea of how the use of
fertilizers can increase plant growth, their yield, quality of food,
etc.
■ Enhance Yield: Some hormones promote growth, while other
encourage flowering, fruit formation, etc. In fisheries, use of
substances to promote fish growth, their reproduction, etc. can
be understood.
■ Adulteration: Even the composition of food material
produced, their alteration or adulteration for example in
honey can be found by biochemical tests. Biochemistry tests
help prevent contamination.
■ Biochemical tests for the pesticide residues or other toxic
waste in plant, food grain and soil can be evaluated. Hence
during import and export of food grains, a biochemical
check of the toxic residues is done to fix the quality.
■ In animal husbandry, the quality of milk can be checked by
biochemical tests. It also helps diagnose any disease
condition in animals and birds.
■ In fisheries, the water quality is regularly monitored by
biochemical tests. Any drastic change in water chemistry &
composition of fishery ponds can lead to the vast death of
fishes and prawns. Hence the tests are done on a regular
basis to see salt content (calcium content), pH,
accumulation of waste due to not changing water for long,
etc.
 Importance of Biochemistry in Nutrition
■ In nutrition, biochemistry describes the food chemistry. For
maintenance of health, optimum intake of many
biochemicals like macro, micronutrients, vitamins, minerals,
essential fatty acids & water is necessary.

■ Food chemistry gives an idea of what we eat, i.e it’s

components like carbohydrates, proteins, fats, etc. and also
the possible physiological alteration due to their deficiency.
■ The role of nutrients: Due to biochemistry the importance of
vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, their contribution to
health were known. Hence there is a frequent
recommendation for inclusion of crucial amino-acids, cod liver
oil, salmon fish oil, etc. by physicians and other health and
fitness experts.
■ The nutrients value of food material can also be determined by
biochemical tests.
■ The physician can prescribe to limit usage of certain food like
excess sugar for diabetics, excess oil for heart & lung problem
prone patients, etc. As these carbohydrate and fat diets can
inhibit the recovery rate from said disorder. This knowledge is
due to their idea of food chemistry and related
 Importance of Biochemistry in Pharmacy
■ In a pharmacy, many drugs are stored for regular
dispensing.
■ Drug Constitution: Biochemistry gives an idea of the
constitution of the drug, its chances of degradation with
varying temperature, etc. How modification in the medicinal
chemistry helps improve efficiency, minimize side effects,
etc.
■ The half-life: This is a test done on biochemical drugs to
know how long a drug is stable when kept at so and so
temperature.
■ Drug storage: The storage condition required can be
estimated by the biochemical test. For example many
enzymes, hormones are stored for dispensing. These get
deteriorated over time due to temperature or oxidation,
contamination and also due to improper storage.
■ Drug metabolism: It also gives an idea of how drug molecules
are metabolized by many biochemical reactions in the
presence of enzymes. This helps to avoid drugs which have a
poor metabolism or those with excessive side effects from
being prescribed or dispensed to the patient.
■ Biochemical tests: These tests help fix the specific half-life or
date of expiry of drugs.
 Importance of Biochemistry in Plants

■ Biochemistry of plants gave way to the breakthrough of how

food is synthesized in them and the reason why they are
autotrophs, i.e. not dependent on other living beings for
food. Biochemistry in plants describes
■ Photosynthesis: This describes how carbohydrates are
synthesized by use of sunlight, CO2, and water in the green
leaves of plants. It goes on to explain about different
complex enzymes involved in the process to combine the
energy of sun within the molecules H2O+ CO2 in the form of
carbohydrates.
■ Respiration: By use of above photosynthesis pathway,
plants leave out Oxygen while taking up Carbon dioxide
from the air. This air is used to generate energy in a cell like
that of animal cells.
Different sugars: Biochemistry defines different types of
carbohydrates formed in plants like - trioses
(3 carbon sugars, i.e. glyceraldehyde) - tetroses
- pentoses -
hexoses - heptuloses

■ Heptuloses are the carbohydrates which go on to form the

nucleic acids, i.e., deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribonucleic
acid (RNA).
■ Plants secondary metabolites: Biochemistry also describes
how the plant products like gums, tannins, alkaloids, resins,
enzymes, phytohormones are formed inside the plants.

■ Other functions: It also describes how plants fruits get

ripened, how to plant seed germinates, the respiration
process inside the plant cell, how proteins and amino acids
are formed on rough endoplasmic reticulum and fats are
formed on smooth ER.