Excretion- Life processes

 It is a biological process to remove the nitrogenous waste out from the

body.
 In unicellular organism, it is done by diffusion into the surrounding
through body surface. Eg : Amoeba and Paramecium.
 In multicellular organism to remove the waste product there is a
specialised organ to perform this function. (eg: Kidney in human)
 There are three types of nitrogenous waste found in different organism :
1. Ammonia – water soluble waste product found in aquatic organism.
Most toxic
2. Urea – Found in mammals (human)
3. Uric acid – Least toxic (in form of paste)

Excretion in human beings :

Excretory system of human beings include : a pair of kidney, a pair o ureter, a

urinary bladder and a urethra.

1. A pair of kidney : Kidneys are bean shaped, reddish brown in color. The
kidneys lie on either side of vertebral column in the abdominal cavity
attached to the dorsal body wall. On the inner concave side of each
kidney is present at a notch called hilum. Blood vessels and nerves enter
through it and the urine leaves out.
2. A pair of ureters : From hilum of each kidney emerges out a slender,
whitish tube called ureter. Each ureter is about 30 cm long, 3-4 mm in
diameter and opens into urinary bladder by slit like aperture. The ureter
carry urine from kidneys to urinary bladder.
3. Urinary bladder and urethra : Urinary bladder is a pear shaped
muscular reservoir for urine. The neck of urinary bladder is surrounded
by sphincters which remain closed and open only at the time of
micturition (urination) The bladder leads to urethra wich opens through
urethral aperture. In human male urethra is about 20 cm in lengthand in
female it is about 3-55cm in length.
 Structure of Nephron

 Nephron is the structural and functional units of kidney.

 Each kidney contains a large number of tiny filtration units called
nephrons.
 The nephron has a cup like capsule called Bowman’s capsule at its upper
end and lower end is a tube like structure called tubule. Thus the
Bowman’s capsule and tubule taken together constitute a nephron.
 Blood at high pressure flows into these tubules by blood capillaries called
glomerulus, which are surrounded by Bowman’s capsule. The structure of
nephron
  This cup shaped structure is followed by the long tubular structure which
is convoluted and twisted. It finally leads to the collecting duct that
collects the filtered urine. On an average 1-2 L of urine is produced by
human body in 2 hours

Urine formation in the kidney: The urine formation involves three steps:

 Glomerular filtration: Nitrogenous wastes, glucose, water, amino acid

filter from the blood into bowman’s capsule of the nephron.
 Tubular reabsorption: Now, useful substances from the filtrate are
reabsorbed back by capillaries surrounding the nephron.
 Secretion: Extra water, salts are secreted into the tubule which opens up
into the collecting duct and then into the ureter.

Urine produced in the kidneys passes through the ureters into the urinary
bladder where it is stored until it is released through the urethra.
The purpose of making urine is to filter out waste product from the blood i.e.,
urea which is produced in the liver.
It takes place in the following processes :

Ultrafiltration occurs in glomerulus under high pressure forcing many of the

substance dissolved into the Bowman’s capsule

The blood then passes through the tubular part of nephron where useful
substances such as glucose, amino acids, salts and major amount of water are
selectively reabsorbed.

Same nitrogenous waste products like creatinine and K+ are removed from
the blood by the tubule and are then added to the urine (tubular secretion)

The urine formed in each kidney enters a long tube called the ureter, which
connects the kidney with urinary bladder.

Urine is stored in the urinary bladder until the pressure of the expanded bladder
causes the urge to pass it out through urethra.

Note : The amount of water that is reabsorbed in the body depends on how
much excess water is present in the body and the amount of dissolved waste to
be excreted.

Renal failure
Renal failure can occur due to many reasons like:

i. Accident or injury
ii. Disease etc.

So either transplantation is done or person is put on artificial kidney i.e.on

dialysis. Dialysis is a process of separating small molecules from large ones
using semi-permeable membrane. it is also called haemo-dialysis.
Dialysis machine consists of cellulose tubes and has dialysing solution filled in
chamber. Blood from renal artery passes from cellulose tube, impure substances
diffuse out into dialysing solution, & pure substances diffuse into blood. Hence,
blood gets purified and is put back into renal vein.

Excretion in plants :

 Other wastes may be stored in leaves, bark etc. which fall off from the
plant.
 Plants excrete some waste into the soil around them.
 Gums, resin → In old xylem
 Some metabolic wastes in the form of crystals of calcium oxalates in the
leaves of colocasia and stem of Zamikand.