What term describes a chemical reactant that binds to an enzyme to form a product?

The term that describes a chemical reactant that binds to an enzyme to form a product is substrate. A substrate is the specific reactant that an enzyme acts on during a biochemical reaction. When the substrate binds to the active site of the enzyme, it forms an enzyme-substrate complex. This specific interaction facilitates the transformation of the substrate into the product of the reaction.

In enzymatic reactions, the substrate undergoes a chemical change due to the enzyme's catalytic action, leading to the formation of the product. Understanding this relationship is fundamental in biochemistry as it helps explain how enzymes, as biological catalysts, accelerate metabolic processes by lowering activation energy and increasing reaction rates.