How does the small & Large

intestines work?
By Kaavya
Small intestine

Function – The small intestine digests carbohydrates and fats, and

absorbs the digested food into the blood streams.
How does the small intestine work?

• The small intestines have carbohydrase enzymes that include;

Maltase, Sucrase, Lactase.
• The small intestine also have lipase enzymes that include; intestinal
lipase.
• The small intestine does the process of assimilation, which is the
process of making use of digested food materials by body cells.
Large intestine
Function – the purpose of the large intestine is to absorb water and
salts from the material that has not been digested(undigested food)
food, and to get rid of any waste products left over.
The 2 main functions of the large intestine
• They recover water and electrolytes from undigested food
• Store the faeces and fermentation of some of the indigestible food
matter by bacteria.
How does the large intestine work?
• A slurry of digested food, known as chyme, enters the large intestine
from the small intestine through the ileocecal sphincter. Chyme
passes through the cecum where it is mixed with beneficial bacteria
that have colonized the large intestine throughout the person’s
lifetime. The chyme is then slowly moved from one haustra to the
next through the 4 regions of the colon. Most of the movement of
chyme is achieved by slow waves of peristalsis over a period of several
hours, but the colon can also be emptied quickly by stronger waves of
mass peristalsis following a large meal. Bacteria in the large intestine
digests the substances that is not digestible by the human digestive
system.