pep's in

Syn.: peptic ferment. The main digestive principle of the gastric juice; also a preparation of the same made from the mucous membrane of the stomach of the hog, sheep, or calf. It has the power of converting proteids into peptones. It requires an acid medium for its action. vegetable p. A ferment occurring in the glandular secretion of insectivorous plants. It has the property of di olving albuminoids, and is analogous to, if not identical with, the p. of the gastric juice of animals. The p. of the U. S. Ph. and the Br. Ph. must be capable of digesting 3000 times its weight of freshly coagulated and disintegrated egg albumin [U. S. Ph.] or 2500 times its weight of hard-boiled white of egg [Br. Ph.]. [Lat., pepsinum, from Gr., peps is, digestion.]