Enzyme unit many kinds of substance besides enzymes (for example, vitamins and hormones). Enzyme unit The enzyme unit (symbol U or sometimes EU) is a unit for the amount of a particular enzyme. One U is defined as the amount of the enzyme that produces a certain amount of enzymatic activity, that is, the amount that catalyzes the conversion of 1 micro-mole of substrate per minute. The conditions also have to be specified: one usually takes a temperature of 25°C and the pH value and substrate concentration that yield the maximal substrate conversion rate. The enzyme unit was adopted by the International
Amount of substance replaces the term "number of moles" which should no longer be used according to IUPAC recommendation. However, confusion can arise due to the everyday usage of the term amount and the term "enplethy" has been suggested for international usage to replace amount of substance. When amount of substance enters into a derived quantity, it is usually as the denominator: such quantities are known as molar quantities. For example, the quantity which describes the volume occupied by a given amount of substance is called the molar volume, while the quantity which describes the mass of a given amount of substance is