Name: ……………………………

The Human Digestive System

Main regions of the alimentary canal and its associated organs

 Write a flow chart to show the order in which food travels through the digestive tract

The associated digestive organs through which food does not travel

These organs helps mainly in two functions.

 Supply secretions contributing to the chemical breakdown of food
 Physical breakdown of food

1. Teeth and tongue

2. Salivary glands
3. Gall bladder
4. Liver
5. Pancreas
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Write the four basic stages of human nutritional heterotrophic nutrition.

1. Ingestion
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2. Digestion
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3. Absorption
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4. Assimilation
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5. Egestion
Any food which cannot be digested or absorbed is passed out of the alimentary canal during
egestion.
Write 2 differences between egestion and excretion.

Egestion Excretion

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 The functions of the main regions of the alimentary canal

1. Ingestion

Mouth

Opening through which food is ingested into the buccal cavity.

Jaws and teeth help in mechanical digestion
Tongue, helps to chew and rolling of food into a bolus, mixes food with saliva.
What does saliva contain?
 Mucin ( to lubricate the bolus)
 Salivary amylase
 Sodium bicarbonate – to give the alkaline condition thereby maintain a pH nearly neutral.
 Lysozymes – antibacterial effect
How does saliva help in making food into a bolus which is then moved into the oesophagus?
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What are the main two functions of Saliva?
1. It wets food, therefore it slips easily down your throat.
2. It contains amylase enzyme which starts to digest the starch in your food into sugar (maltose).
But since food is not kept in the mouth for long very little starch is digested in the mouth.

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 Oesophagus

It is a long narrow muscular tube with a glandular epithelium. Muscles help to move the food along the
oesophages by peristalsis. Glandular epithelium secrete mucus to lubricate food to make it easy to
slip down.
Food bolus will not be chemically digested during its stay in oesophagus.

What is the mechanism which does not let the bolus to move into the respiratory tract when its entering
into the oesophagus?

Presence of the epiglottis

Epiglottis is a cartilaginous membrane

acts as a flap, which shuts the trachea
when bolus is moving to the
oesophagus.

What is peristalsis?

The rhythmic muscular ……………………… and ……………………………………. of both longitudinal

and …………………………………………………. Antagonistically.

 Peristalsis will push food bolus along the entire length of the gut
Behind the bolus, Ahead of the bolus,
Circular muscles - …………………………………. Circular muscles - ………………………………..
Longitudinal muscles - …………………………….. Longitudinal muscles - …………………………..

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2. Digestion

Stomach

Stomach is a large muscular bag which stores food temporary. There are two sphincter muscles which
regulate the movement of food into and out of the stomach.
Mechanical digestion is done by churning actions. (The stomach wall is made up of 3 layers of muscles.)
Chyme is the food bolus mixed with gastric juice.
Gastric juice contains digestive enzymes, mucus and dil. HCl.

The chemical digestion in stomach

The mucus is secreted into the lumen. Mucus covers the stomach cells thus, preventing self-
digestion.
HCl is secreted to create the pH 2 acidic medium in the stomach.
Protease enzymes are secreted. The optimum pH of stomach protease is pH 2.
Proteins present in the food bolus is broken down into polypeptides / amino acids by protease
enzymes.
This food bolus (chemically different) is now called chyme.
 In young mammals, rennin is secreted in stomach. Rennin is an enzyme which can coagulate
milk protein, thereby increase the surface area for digestion. This increases the rate of
digestion.

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What is the composition of chyme at the end of stomach?
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Small Intestine

It consists of the duodenum and ileum. The enzymes in the small intestine will only work properly in
alkaline conditions.

Duodenum
It is a narrow bent tube into which bile and pancreatic juice are released.
Digestive enzymes are released from the small intestine wall as well.
How does digestion occur within the duodenum?
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Ileum
The longest part of the gut. It’s highly coiled. Glandular epithelium secretes enzymes to complete
digestion.
Presence of villi, microvilli and the thick network of blood capillaries together with lacteals help to absorb
digested food into blood.
The chemical digestion in ileum
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What is the composition of chyme at the end of the ileum?

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Explain why most foods must be digested?
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3. Absorption and assimilation

Many villi present in the walls of ileum. One villus is about a millimeter long. It contains microvilli as
well. The villi and micro villi greatly increase the surface area for absorption.

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Amino acids, glucose, minerals and some vitamins are absorbed into blood capillaries and carried
directly to the liver for the first stage of their treatment in the body. They are carried by a blood vessel
called hepatic portal vein.

Hepatic Portal Vein

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Villi has a lymph vessel called a lacteal which carries lymph. This helps to absorb fatty acids and
glycerol. They are capable to move to bring themselves into close contact with food.

Fatty acids and glycerol, after entering the lacteals in the villi, travel in the lymphatic system. They
bypass the liver and enter the circulatory system at a vein in the neck, where it’s emptied into blood.

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The main food substances, absorbed as small soluble molecules, must now be built up into the larger
molecules needed by the body. This is called assimilation.

Eg. Glycogen
Fats and oils
New proteins
Glucose may use as a substrate for respiration to release energy. Usually after a meal there is more
glucose available than is needed. Thus the extra glucose must be stored. Extra glucose is stored as a
large insoluble molecule called glycogen. This is stored in the liver and muscles. Conversion from
glucose to glycogen is done by the hormone insulin which is secreted by the pancreas.

Amino acids are used in building up proteins. Amino acids and proteins are never stored. Any excess
amino acids are broken down in the liver by the process called Deamination.

Two separate molecules from excess amino acids are produced as a result of deamination:
1. A carbohydrate which can be changed to glycogen and stored.
2. Urea, a nitrogenous waste product, which passes in the blood from the liver to the kidneys
for excretion in urine.

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The role of the liver in glucose and amino acid metabolism

1. The liver is involved in the regulation of blood glucose levels.

When blood glucose levels are high:
Glucose Glycogen
When blood glucose levels are low:
Glycogen Glucose
2. Liver removes excess amino acids from the blood by deamination.
3. Detoxifies the toxins and breakdown alcohol.
Detoxification is the removal and breakdown of toxins from blood. Eg: alcohol.

Fat metabolism
The liver does not play a major part in fat metabolism.

Once in blood, fatty acids and glycerol recombine to form tiny fat droplets. Lipids are stored in special
cells in skin termed adipose tissue and around kidneys.

4. Egestion

Large intestine
This consists of colon and rectum.

Undigested food travels through the caecum, past the appendix then move into colon. In humans
appendix and caecum have no function. By now digested food products are absorbed into blood.

 Colon: Water and salt are absorbed from the food (undigested)
Coliform bacteria present in it provide human with Vit B and K
Faeces formed here and fibre in food induce peristalsis.
 Rectum: A short tube, through which faeces pass. It’s the temporary storage of faeces.

Now in the faces indigestible food, bacteria and some dead cells from the inner lining of alimentary
canal can be found.

Anus
Helps to eject faces to the exterior. Anus is closed by a ring of muscles called anal sphincter, which is
relaxed during egestion. (Defecation)

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 Associated organ in the digestive system

1. Salivary Glands ( A gland)

Secrete saliva and starts digestion of starch. Creates a Ph of 7. And lubricates food to help in swallowing
the bolus, lysozymes destroy bacteria.

2. Pancreas (A gland)
The pancreas lies between the stomach and the duodenum. It secretes pancreatic juice, which is
passes to the duodenum to help in digestion.
Pancreatic juice contains the enzymes,
 Amylase for digesting starch
Any remaining starch is changed to maltose at duodenum by amylase secreted from
pancreas.
 Protease for digesting protein
Any remaining proteins changed to polypeptides. Protein digestion starts at stomach.
 Lipase for digesting fat
Bile secreted from liver breaks up / emulsifies fats into small droplets. Lipase then work
on them far more quickly, changing fats into fatty acid and glycerol.
Islets of Langerhans sends out hormones insulin and glucagon into blood.

3. Liver ( considered as the second largest organ and a gland as well)

It is the largest internal organ. Liver produces bile, which is an alkaline, greenish colored fluid. Bile is
alkaline due to the salts and pigments it contains. It is produced due to breaking down of red blood
cells. After producing bile, it is stored in gall bladder. And sent to duodenum through bile duct. It doesn’t
contain any enzymes.

Functions of bile,
 It can neutralize acidic chime from the stomach
 Bile emulsifies fat.
Functions of liver,
 Extra glucose gat stored as glycogen, Extra amino acids are deaminated and made urea,
vitamins and minerals, Extra fat are either stored or turned into cholesterol.
 Stores blood
 Used hormones, toxins and dead red blood cells and hemoglobin are broken down.
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What are the absorbed molecules that travel directly to the liver?
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Name two constituents of a diet that are absorbed without digestion.

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What is the constituent of a healthy diet that is never absorbed?
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Why a patient with cystic fibrosis may find it difficult to gain weight despite eating a balanced diet?
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What happens if the gall bladder is taken out in an operation from a person’s body?
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