MicrobeWorld

Now You See It... Now You Don't! - Are live bacteria necessary for breakdown?

Water dissolves starch, but for starches to be broken down completely, the process depends on the many microbes commonly found in the soil. The microbes make digestive enzymes, like the acids in your stomach, that break down starch into its simple sugar building blocks (a starch is like a long chain of connected sugars). The sugars serve as energy, or food, for the microbes.