NAAN.UNIT 4.

DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
Objectives
• By the end of this unit, the student should be able to:
• Describe the digestive system canal:
• Oral cavity
• Pharynx
• Oesophagus
• Stomach
• Small intestines
• Large intestines or colon
•Describe the structure and functions of the additional structures or organs of the digestive
system:
•Tongue
•Teeth
•Salivary glands
•Pancreas
•Spleen
•Liver
•Gall bladder and bile ducts
•Describe the peritoneum
 
 
Overview of the digestive system
• Digestive system consist of the elementary canal and exocrine glands
• This food tube begins in your mouth and ends at your anus
• Food travels from one end to the other in 24 to 48hours
• When we eat, food is broken apart (digested) into simple nutrients
• Most of the digestion occurs in the first segment of the small
intestine, the duodenum
• Food is made up of 4 major categories of organic compounds:
• Carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acid
• An organic molecule is a hydro-carbon compound, made up mostly of
carbon and hydrogen
• Digestion:
• when carbohydrates are digested, they are broken down into the
simplest form of sugar (monosaccharide)
• Lipids are fats which will be broken down into fatty acids
• Proteins into amino acids
• Nucleic acids into nucleiotides (DNS, RNA)
• Most of the nutrients are absorbed into our blood stream
• 2steps of digestion in elementary canal:
• Food is broken into smaller parts and the nutrients are absorbed into
our bloodstream
• Most absorption occurs across the jejunum and ileum, the second
and third parts of the small intestine
• FOOD________digestion_____nutrients______ absorption
Carbs/fats/prot__duodenum___jejenum absorbs and into blood
• The food we eat comes from animals and plants
• The digestive system turns these fats, proteins, etc into human organic
compounds
• The digestive system also include the accessory exocrine glands
• Two types of glands:
• 1.Endocrine glands secrete hormones into the blood stream (thyroid
gland)
• 2. exocrine gland secretes a chemical substance into a duct (tube).
Salivary glands secretes saliva into these tubes that then release saliva
into our mouths
• Salivary glands release saliva into these tubes include parotid, sub-
mandibular, sublingual

• Digestive system consist of a number of accessory exocrine glands:

• They secrete enzymes and other substances into the elementary canal
• 1.Salivary glands secrete saliva
• 2.Liver release bile
• 3.Gallbladder
• 4.Pancreas (is both endocrine and exocrine gland)
• 1.Ingestion: putting food into your mouth/eat
• 2.Digestion breaks down food into food residues and nutrients
• Protein into amino acids,
• Carbohydrates into mono-saccharides, etc
• 3.Absorption. Nutrients taken up into blood stream
• 4.Defecation of indigestible food residues eg cellulose from plant cell
walls, corn skin
• Metabolic waste products are excreted in our urine
• REGIONS OF THE ELEMENTARY CANAL
• Mouth
• Pharynx
• Esophagus
• Stomach
• Small intestine
• Large intestine
• anus
• Mouth:
• Labia x2
• Gums
• Hard palate frenulum
• Soft palate forms into
• Uvula
• Food is pushed by our tongue down into our throat
• A bolus of food moves down the esophagus by a peristaltic wave of
contraction
• Even if you stand upside down, food will still be pushed down the
esophagus via these peristaltic contractions
• There is a sphincter at the entrance of the stomach (cardiac sphincter)
and at the exit to the duodenum (pyloric sphincter). These valves try to
prevent backflow of stomach contents into the esophagus or back into
the stomach from the duodenum.
• Omentum (fatty tissue that protects the bowel) hangs from the stomach
• The stomach is a muscular sac that stores/holds food
• There is very little digestion or absorption of nutrients taking place in
the stomach
• A little bit of food will be released into the duodenum, where digestion
occurs. The digestive process can go on for hours
• There are gastric glands in the stomach that secretes gastric juice into
the stomach to mix with the food
• This mixture of food (ground up, churned up) with the gastric juice is
called chyme
• When the chyme comes out through the mouth, we call it vomit
• The gastric juice contains two chemicals: hydrochloric acid and
pepsinogen
The hydrochloric acid kill most of the bacteria in our food
The simple columnar epithelium tissue, which forms the inner lining of
the stomach , has mucus secreting goblet cells and this mucus acts as
a shield against this hydrochloric acid, but new cells have to be made
regularly
Skin and elementary canal are always making new cells
• Pepsinogen is an inactive form of a digestive enzyme, and is activated by
hydrochloric acid into the active form, pepsin
• Pepsin is a digestive enzyme that begins the process of breaking proteins into
short peptide chains
• Digestion is the process of turning organic compounds (carbohydrates,
lipids, protein, nucleic acids) into simple nutrients
• The only digestion that takes place in the stomach: pepsin breaks down
polypeptide into short peptide chains
• Substances that can be absorbed in the stomach into the blood stream
include: water, alcohol, simple sugars(from eg honey-fast energy), and aspirin
• Stomach takes 1 to 4 hours to empty out, depending on what you ate
• The stomach is a muscular sac that stores/holds food
• There is very little digestion or absorption of nutrients taking place in
the stomach
• A little bit of food will be released into the duodenum, where
digestion occurs. The digestive process can go on for hours
• There are gastric glands in the stomach that secretes gastric juice into
the stomach to mix with the food
• This mixture of food (ground up, churned up) with the gastric juice is
called chyme
• When the chyme comes out through the mouth, we call it vomit
• The gastric juice contains two chemicals: hydrochloric acid and
pepsinogen
These juices kill most of the bacteria in our food
The small intestine
Begin after the pyloric sphincter
Most digestion occurs in the duodenum (first part of SI)
• Lining of SI has fingerlike extension called villi
• Lumen of SI has villi that increases its surface area to increase
absorption
• Enzymatic digestion of chyme happens in duodenum
• Pancreatic juice flows into duodenum through pancreatic duct
• Common bile duct also flows into duodenum to release bile
• These two ducts meet at the same place in the duodenum
• Called hepatic-pancreatic sphincter of oddi
• Bile is green “soap”
• Soap emulsifies the fats, it allows them to dissolve in water
• Bile, which is produced in the liver and stored in gallbladder,
• contains green bilirubin, protein called mucin and fats
• Bile acts like a detergent to emulsify fats in water
• Hepato-pancreatic sphincter controls the secretions from pancreas and CBD
• Bile is sent back into gallbladder when it is not needed(when stomach is
empty)
• When you eat, gall bladder contracts to push bile into duodenum for fat
emulsification
• Pancreas produces pancreatic juice and transports it through the
pancreatic duct into the duodenum
• Pancreatic juice contains a lot of digestive enzymes, sodium
bicarbonate (which reduces the acidity of the chyme), pancreatic
amylase which breaks down most of the starch, tripsin breaks down
proteins, pancreatic lipase breaks down fat into fatty acids, pancreatic
nucleases break down nucleic acids
• ABSORBTION
• Most of the absorption occurs in the jejunum and ileum
• Water-soluble nutrients will be absorbed by the blood capillaries in
intestinal wall and carried via the hepatic portal vein to the liver
• Lymphatic vessels (lacteals) and blood vessels cover the inside of the
jejunum
• Fats will be absorbed by the lacteals, transported to the general
circulation and then sent to the liver
• Lymphatic vessels and blood vessels connect at the subclavian vessels in
the neck
• LARGE INTESTINE
• Made up of cecum, ascending colon, transverse colon, sigmoid colon,
rectum and anus
• The SI intestine connects to the LI at the ileo-cecal sphincter, which
prevents backflow of chyme into SI, and to push it up into the
ascending (going up) colon
• Chyme then flows via the transverse (horizontal) colon into the
decending (going down) colon
• Rectum collects/holds undigested
• Large intestine is wide, has sacs called hostra.
• Functions of LI
• Colon stores a lot of water
• Stores food residues (stuff that cannot be digested ,like
cellulose/fibre)
• Bacterial digestion of remaining chyme. The bacteria that managed to
survive the SI, will eat off the remaining chyme and will release vit K
• As the bacteria break down the food, they generate gases (flatulence)
• The ANAL canal
• is the terminal end of the alimentary canal
• 1.The involuntary internal anal sphincter is made up of visceral
smooth muscle and controlled by autonomic motor neurons
• 2.The voluntary external anal sphincter is made up of skeletal muscle
and controlled by somatic motor neurons
•General anatomy of the digestive system
•A) Gastrointestinal Tract, it is also known as "alimentary canal”. It consists of all organs through
which food passes (mouth to anus). Thus Mouth/oral cavity Pharynx, Oesophagus, stomach, small
intestine and Large intestine
•B) Accessory Structures that assist in digestion; Tongue, Salivary glands, Liver, Pancreas and Spleen
•C) Four Major Layers of GI Tract
•Mucosa/mucous membrane: surface epithelium, underlying connective tissue, small amount of
smooth muscle
•Submucosa: considerable loose connective tissue, glands, blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, nerves
•Muscular layer: inner circular smooth muscle and outer longitudinal smooth muscle
•Serosa/serous layer: visceral peritoneum with epithelium on the outside and connective tissue
beneath
COMPONENTS OF THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
•Major organs of the digestive system
• 
1.Oral cavity
•It is the mouth, where a substance begins its travel through the digestive tract. The oral
cavity is inferior to the nasal cavities. It has a roof and floor and lateral walls, opens
onto the face through the oral fissure, and is continuous with the cavity of the pharynx
at the oropharyngeal isthmus. Oral cavity is bordered by the lips and cheeks on the
outside and the teeth and gums on the inside.
•The bones that contribute to the skeletal framework of the oral cavity include:
 the paired maxillae, palatine, and temporal bones, and
 the unpaired mandible, sphenoid, and hyoid bones.
THE TONGUE
THE TEETH
2.Oesophagus
•Is a muscular tube, about 25cm long

•Begins at the base of the laryngopharynx and descends through the thorax posterior to the
trachea, passing through the mediastinum.(C-6 to T10)

•Penetrates the diaphragm through the esophageal hiatus, and is continuous with the stomach
on the abdominal side of the diaphragm
•.
•The lumen is lined by thick, nonkeratinized, stratified squamous epithelium while the rest of
the wall consists of two layers of muscle; an inner circular and an outer longitudinal layer.
•  
The Stomach
3.Stomach
•J-shaped pouch like organ
•Hangs inferior to the diaphragm in the left upper-portion of the abdominal
cavity
•Its inner lining has thick gastric folds (rugae) that unfold when the wall is
distended.
•Is the most dilated part of the alimentary canal and has a capacity of about 1
liter.
•Lies in the epigastrium, left hypochondriac and umbilical region.
•It has 4 anatomic regions: cardia, fundus, body and pyloric region
THE PANCREAS
4.Small intestine
•The small intestines extend from the stomach to join the large intestine or colon at the caecum.
•It’s about 6 to 7-meter-long and it fills the abdominal cavity and pelvic cavity.
•Has 3 regions: duodenum jejunum and ileum

•4.1 .Duodenum
•Shortest part of the Small intestines (20-25cm).
•Follows a C-shaped path as it passes anterior to right kidney and upper 3rd lumbar vertebrae
posteriorly.
•The whole duodenum, except for the first part lies retroperitoneal (lies posterior to the parietal
peritoneum).
•Rest of the Small intestine is free and mobile within the peritoneal cavity
 4.2 Jejunum and ileum
•The jejunum and ileum are the mobile parts of the small intestines and move
relatively freely in the peritoneal cavity.
•The first two-fifths of the mobile SI is the jejunum and the rest is the ileum
•No distinct separation between jejunum and ileum.
•However diameter of the jejunum is greater and its wall is thicker, more mucosal
folds, but less lymphoid tissue than that of the ileum.
•Jejunum and ileum are attached from posterior abdominal wall by double layered
fold of peritoneum called mesentery
•Mesentery contains blood vessels, lymphatic vessels and nerves that supply intestinal
wall.
5. The large intestines
•The large intestine is also known as colon
•Extends from the caecum to the anus. It has a distance of
approximately 1.5 m in adults.
•It has 4 regions; ascending colon, transverse colon, descending colon
and sigmoid colon.
•The ascending, transverse and descending colon lie in the shape of an
inverted U in the abdomen.
•The ascending colon extends from the caecum to the right colic or
hepatic flexure.
•Only the transverse colon is mobile, the other parts of the colon are
situated retroperitoneally are thus fixed.
•The descending colon descends through the left lumbar area, where it
becomes the splenic colon.
•The sigmoid colon is attached to the posterior wall by a V-shaped
mesentery, the sigmoid mesocolon.
•Major accessory organs
•1.Tongue
•Thick muscular organ that occupies the floor of the mouth. Mucous
membrane covers the tongue. A membranous fold called the lingual
frenulum connects the midline of the tongue to the floor of the
mouth.The body of the tongue is mostly composed of skeletal muscle
fibres that run in several directions.
2.Salivary glands
•Saliva is a fluid that is continuously secreted into the mouth. Most saliva is
secreted by the salivary glands (major salivary glands), accessory structures
that lie outside the mouth. There are 3 pairs of salivary glands: parotid,
submandibular and sublingual glands.
 The parotid glands are located inferior and anterior to the ears between the
skin and masseter muscle.
 The submandibular glands are found beneath the base of the tongue in the
posterior part of the flour of the mouth.
 The sublingual glands are superior to the submandibular glands.
3.Liver
•Largest internal organ and is located in the right upper quadrant of the
abdominal cavity.
•Reddish brown in color with a very good blood supply.
•Fibrous capsule encloses the liver.
•Connective tissue divides it into a large right lobe and smaller left lobe.
•The right lobe is further divided into 2 lobes, the quadrate and the caudate lobes.
•Falciform ligament: fold of visceral peritoneum that separates the lobes and
attaches liver to abdominal wall anteriorly. The blood supply to the liver is
through the right/left hepatic artery
4. Pancreas
•Situated on the posterior wall of the abdomen in the epigastrium and left hypochondrium.
•Extends horizontally across the posterior abdominal wall with its head in the C-shaped curve
of the duodenum and its tail against the spleen
•Made up mostly of PANCREATIC ACINAR CELLS which produce pancreatic juice
5. The spleen
•Spleen is the largest single mass of lymph tissue in the body.
•Its about 15cm in length and is about the size of a man ‘ s fist.
•The spleen lies in the left hypochondriac region between the stomach and diaphragm lateral to
the liver.
•Spleen consists of 2 different kinds of tissues: white pulp and red pulp
•The spleen filters blood by removing cellular waste
• Peritoneum
• The peritoneum is a membrane, a sheet of smooth tissue, that lines
your abdominopelvic cavity and surrounds your abdominal organs
• It pads and insulates your organs
• It holds organs I place
• It secretes a lubricating fluid to reduce friction when organs rub
against each other
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
•Differentiate between small intestines and large intestine
Summary
The gastrointestinal system can be separated into the upper gastrointestinal tract, consisting of
the oral cavity (mouth), pharynx, and esophagus, and the lower gastrointestinal tract, consisting
of the abdominal organs.
ANSWERS FOR SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
Small intestine Large intestine
(i)It’s about 6 to 7-meter-long. (i)Is approximately 1.5 m long
(ii)It has 3 regions: duodenum (ii)It has 4 regions; ascending colon,
jejunum and ileum transverse colon, descending colon and
sigmoid colon.