Question

Is pepsin a digestive enzyme?

Answer 1

Hint: Digestive enzymes are a group of enzymes that help the body absorb polymeric macromolecules by breaking them down into smaller building blocks. Digestive enzymes can be found in the digestive tracts of animals (including humans) and carnivorous plants, where they help with food digestion, as well as inside cells, particularly in the lysosomes, where they help with cell division.

Complete answer:
The saliva secreted by the salivary glands, the secretions of cells lining the stomach, the pancreatic juice secreted by pancreatic exocrine cells, and the secretions of cells lining the small and large intestines all contain digestive enzymes of various specificities.
Pepsin is an endopeptidase enzyme that degrades proteins into peptides. It is produced in the gastric chief cells of the stomach lining and is one of the most important digestive enzymes in humans and many other animals' digestive systems, where it aids in the digestion of proteins in food. Pepsin is an aspartic protease with an active site that contains a catalytic aspartate.
It is one of three major proteases found in the human digestive system, along with chymotrypsin and trypsin. During digestion, these enzymes work together to break down dietary proteins into their constituents, each specializing in severing links between specific types of amino acids.
Pepsin is a type of stomach enzyme that aids in the digestion of proteins found in food. Pepsin is secreted by the gastric chief cells as pepsinogen, an inactive zymogen. The stomach lining's parietal cells secrete hydrochloric acid, which lowers the stomach's pH.
In other words, it's the potent enzyme found in gastric juice that breaks down proteins found in foods like eggs, meat, seeds, and dairy products. Pepsin is the active form of the pepsinogen zymogen.

Thus, yes pepsin is a digestive enzyme.

Note:
Pepsinogen, the proenzyme of pepsin, is released by the gastric chief cells in the stomach wall, and when it comes into contact with the hydrochloric acid in gastric juice, it activates to become pepsin. Pepsin is expressed as a zymogen called pepsinogen, which has an additional 44 amino acids in its primary structure than the active enzyme.