Product

∞ generated and posted on 2016.08.22 ∞

Substance or phenomenon that is generated by a chemical or physical process.

Note that the word product is used whether or not a chemical reaction, or physical process, is enzymatically catalyzed. Thus, in the chemistry laboratory one typically speaks of reactants and products while with enzymes one typically speaks of substrate, as a "reactant" equivalent, but also of products.

Products are the raison d'êtreof enzyme functioning. That is, if a specific product is not needed by an organism or cell then neither is the enzyme that makes only that specific product.

Physical processes can include, for example, the pumping of ions, e.g., a proton motive force is a product of a physical process as well as chemical process (as catalyzed by electron transport chains). Radioactive decay, as harnessed in the course of radiometric dating, is also a physical process that results in products, in this case various products of fission.