SCIENCE 8 – Q4

THE HUMAN DIGESTIVE

SYSTEM

 DIGESTION = The food you eat passes through your

digestive tract or gastrointestinal tract, where it is broken
down into smaller and simpler substances that the body can
easily absorb. Digestion involves mechanical and chemical
processes.
 INGESTION = The process of taking food, drink, or
another substance into the body by swallowing or absorbing.
 MECHANICAL DIGESTION = Food is physically
broken down into smaller pieces by biting, chewing, and
churning. Mechanical Digestion, Digestion is important because your body needs
The large pieces of food that are ingested have to be broken nutrients from food and drink to work properly and stay
into smaller particles that can be acted upon by various healthy. Proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins NIH
enzymes. This is mechanical digestion, which begins in the external link, minerals NIH external link, and water are
mouth with chewing or mastication and continues with nutrients. Your digestive system breaks nutrients into
churning and mixing actions in the stomach. parts small enough for your body to absorb and use for
 CHEMICAL DIGESTION = Large and complex food energy, growth, and cell repair.
molecules are broken down into simpler ones. This process
is made possible by enzymes, acids, and other substances Proteins break into amino acids
that speed up chemical reactions. The complex molecules of Fats break into fatty acids and glycerol
carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are transformed by
chemical digestion into smaller molecules that can be Carbohydrates break into simple sugars
absorbed and utilized by the cells. Chemical digestion,
through a process called hydrolysis, uses water and digestive
enzymes to break down complex molecules. Digestive
enzymes speed up the hydrolysis process, which is otherwise
very slow.

ORAL CAVITY - the oral cavity or mouth serves as

the entrance to the digestive system. It is the site of
ingestion, the process of taking in food by eating or drinking.
Inside the mouth are the teeth and tongue that mechanically
digest food. Different salivary glands initiate the chemical
digestion of food, specifically carbohydrates. Generally,
mammals have anatomically similar mouths, however,
mammals have different types of teeth, depending on what
they eat.
  TEETH – is responsible for mastication, the process
of crushing and grinding food, human adults usually have
32 teeth, while children have 20 or fewer depending on
their age. There are different types of teeth and each has a
specific function.
Incisors & canines – are used for cutting and tearing.
Premolars & molars – have large surfaces and are ideal
for chewing.
During mastication, food is broken down into smaller
pieces and mixed with saliva to facilitate the chemical
digestion of carbohydrates in the oral activity, which
occurs with the aid of the enzyme amylase. Also when food
is in smaller pieces, it can easily mix with the digestive
juices, thus aiding in chemical digestion.
The four types of teeth vary in shape but have common
parts:
Crown- is the part of the tooth located above the gums.
Neck- is the part within the margins of the gums, linking
the crown to the root.
Root- is buried in the jawbone and holds the tooth in
place.
Pulp cavity- the center of the tooth, where blood vessels
and nerves are found. (toothaches are caused by the
inflammation of the pulp cavity.)
Dentin- is the hard, bony substance that surrounds the soft
pulp cavity.
Enamel- covers the dentin, a layer of calcium phosphate
that is harder than bone, it enables the teeth to chew hard
food.

- Your teeth play a big role in digestion. They cut and crush
foods, making them easier to swallow. Though they look
more like bones, teeth are ectodermal organs. Other
ectodermal organs include your hair, skin, and sweat
glands.
- All of your teeth work together harmoniously to cut, tear,
mix and grind your food into smaller pieces. Then, your
tongue and oropharynx (the upper part of your throat)
shape the food into a small ball that’s easy to swallow.
TONGUE & SALIVARY GLANDS

Togue
- Long, muscular structure that perceives
taste. It has rough surfaces, called papillae (sing.
Papilla), where the taste buds are found. There
are 3 types of papillae on the tongue: vallate,
foliate, and fungiform. Papillae may also be
located on the soft palate, epiglottis, and
esophagus.
The taste buds are clusters of taste receptor cells, which
mediate the five basic taste sensations: bitter, salty,
sweet, sour, and umami. There are about 2000 to 5000
taste buds on the human tongue.
The inner region of the tongue consists mainly of
muscles, which enable the tongue to mix food with
saliva and then push it down to the pharynx in a process
called swallowing

Saliva
- Juice secreted by the salivary glands makes food
slippery by moistening it to facilitate the swallowing
process, enzymes = break down carbs and substances.
- saliva is also responsible for maintaining the pH
level in the mouth at around neutral.
- Saliva also contains a digestive enzyme called
salivary amylase, which helps in the initial digestion of
starch, a complex carbohydrate, by breaking it down
into maltose, a simple carbohydrate. There are 3 major
pairs of salivary glands in mammals: parotid,
sublingual, and submandibular glands.
PHARYNX
Commonly called the throat, is a muscular tube that
serves as a passageway for food and air. The pharynx
leads to the esophagus, the passageway for food, and the
larynx, the passageway for air. During swallowing, the
epiglottis, a flap of tissue located near the front end of
the pharynx and behind the tongue, automatically covers
the entrance
of the larynx so that food will not enter the
respiratory tract. When you are in a hurry to
swallow food, you can choke. This is because you
cannot swallow food and breathe air at the same
time since both tasks involve the pharynx.
The upper ends of both the esophagus and the trachea
open in the throat next to each other, and there is a
flap that covers the trachea. When the food is
swallowed, the trachea remains closed. But if we eat
in a hurry, the food enters the trachea. This causes
choking.
People are more likely to choke on saliva when they
talk while swallowing. This is because talking
requires air, so the epiglottis cannot fully close the
windpipe when a person talks.
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- pylorus. Its thick wall consists of three sets of muscles,
which contract in three different directions.
- The inner lining of the stomach has glands that secrete
gastric juices and mucus that aid in digestion. Gastric
juice is composed of hydrochloric acid and the
digestive enzymes pepsin and lipase. Hydrochloric
acid is a strong acid that softens fibrous foods and kills
ESOPHAGUS most of the microorganisms present in food. It is very
acidic, with a pH between 1 and 2. Pepsin breaks down
- Running from the base of the pharynx through the
proteins into their simpler forms: amino acids and
whole length of the neck and down to the stomach is a
peptides. Gastric lipase partially breaks down fat
25 cm long tube called the esophagus. It is composed
molecules in food.
of smooth muscles that create wavelike muscular
- The stomach can accommodate 1 to 1.5 L of food and
contractions called peristalsis. Peristalsis propels food
becomes empty once again about three to four hours
to the stomach, an expandable, baglike organ attached
after you eat. When the partly digested food is mixed
to the end of the esophagus. Mucus glands that line the
with gastric juice, an extremely acidic (pH of 2 to 4)
inner surface of the esophagus secrete mucus, a slimy
semiliquid mass called chyme is formed. It is then
substance that lubricates the esophagus to ease the
pushed down into the small intestine.
passage of food. Located at the upper portion of the
esophagus is the upper esophageal sphincter, a The stomach is an important organ and the most dilated
muscular valve that prevents air from entering the portion of the digestive system. The esophagus precedes
esophagus and inhibits the reflux of food into the it, and the small intestine follows. It is a large, muscular,
pharynx. A sphincter is a ring-like band of muscle that and hollow organ allowing for a capacity to hold food. It
controls the size of an opening in the body. is comprised of 4 main regions, the cardia, fundus, body,
and pylorus.

STOMACH
- The stomach is the J-shaped, 20 cm long, expandable
organ that receives food from the esophagus. There are
folds in the stomach called rugae (sing. ruga) that
increase the stomach's surface area to accommodate
food. A muscular ring called the lower esophageal
sphincter acts as a valve that prevents the reflux of food
and acid into the esophagus. The stomach has four
regions: the cardia, fundus, body, and
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- SMALL INTESTINE
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- The chyme from the stomach moves down to the small
- intestine, where the final stages of digestion and partial
- absorption take place. Similar to the esophageal wall, the
- peristaltic movement of involuntary muscles propels food
- along the small intestine. The small intestine is about 7 m long
and 2.5 cm wide. It is the longest part of the digestive tract. It
is segmented into three parts: the duodenum (25 cm), jejunum
(2.5 cm), and ileum (3 m) (FIGURE 13-8). Between the
pylorus of the stomach and the duodenum of the small
intestine is a muscular valve called the pyloric sphincter,
which prevents the backflow of chyme from the small
intestine to the stomach.

The small intestine is the site of absorption, the process in

which nutrients from food are diffused to the different parts of
the body. All three segments help in nutrient absorption.
Chemical secretions from accessory digestive organs such as
the pancreas, liver, and gallbladder mix with chyme in the
duodenum. Aside from absorption, the duodenum performs
chemical digestion and neutralization of the acidic chyme.

The small intestine has a very large surface area that is in

contact with digested food, which makes it particularly well-
suited for absorbing nutrients.
This large surface area is the result of the following;
the long length of the small intestine, the folds and
creases in its lining, and the presence of tiny,
fingerlike projections called villi (sing. villus) in the
epithelial lining of the intestinal wall (FIGURE 13).
A villus is microscopic in size. Located at the center
of each villus are tiny blood vessels called capillaries,
and a tiny lymph vessel called the lacteal. The
capillaries transport carbohydrates and proteins,
while the lacteals transport lipids.
 ACCESSORY ORGANS
The accessory organs of the digestive system also aid
digestion. The liver, pancreas, and intestinal glands all
secrete substances that aid in the process of digestion.

The liver - is the largest gland in the human

body. The liver has many different functions that aid
LARGE INTESTINE not just the process of digestion, but also other
processes in the body. In digestion, the main role of
The large intestine or colon is about 2 m long and 7 cm the liver is to produce and secrete bile. Bile is an
wide; it is shorter but wider than the small intestine. Unlike alkaline fluid with a pH of 7-8 and contains pigments,
the small intestine which digests food and absorbs minerals, cholesterol, and bile salts, that aid the breakdown of
the large intestine only absorbs salt and water. large fats or lipid globules into tiny lipid droplets. This
The efficiency of digestion depends on the presence or process is known as emulsification, the tiny fat
absence of the necessary digestive enzymes. For example, droplets are then digested by pancreatic lipase breaks
cellulose fibers from plants cannot be digested because the down lipids and fat-soluble vitamins, among others.
human body does not have the appropriate enzyme From the liver, bile is temporarily stored in the
(cellulase) to break them down. Thus, most fibers pass from gallbladder and then passes through bile ducts that
the main intestine into the large intestine completely originate from the liver and connect to the duodenum
undigested. The fibers and any undigested food move from of the small intestine.
the large intestine to the rectum, an expandable storage
chamber, via peristalsis. From the rectum, undigested food
or feces passes out of the body through the anus in a process THE PANCREAS - The pancreas secretes
called egestion or defecation. substances not only for digestion but also for other
Excretion is the removal of waste materials from the body. processes in various organ systems of the body.
The body eliminates carbon dioxide and water produced Through the pancreatic duct, it secretes pancreatic
during cellular respiration and nitrogenous wastes from the juice loaded with enzymes that help break down fats,
breakdown of protein-rich food. Aside from the digestive proteins, and carbohydrates. The pancreatic juice is
system, other organs also excrete waste. The lungs excrete released into the duodenum of the small intestine and
most carbon dioxide and water produced during respiration, mixed with chyme from the stomach. Both pancreatic
the kidneys remove nitrogenous wastes, and the skin juice and bile contain bicarbonate ions that neutralize
excretes water and excess minerals as sweat. the acidity of the chyme. The bicarbonate ions raise
the pH of chyme in the small intestine to about 7.5.
A small vestigial organ called the appendix is attached This pH level aids the activity of the pancreatic
to the large intestine. enzymes.
A vestigial organ is an organ that lost its function for
Aside from lipase, two other enzymes are important in the
some species over the course of evolution. In humans,digestion process; amylase, which breaks down starch, and
the appendix is located in the lower right abdomen.protease,
It which breaks down proteins. Pancreatic amylase
is not involved in digestion. changes starch into the simpler maltose.
Trypsin and chymotrypsin are proteases that break down
large proteins into basic amino acids and aromatic amino
acids, respectively. These enzymes act on proteins that were
not broken down by pepsin in the stomach.
Along the inner lining of the intestine are intestinal
glands, which secrete intestinal juice. The four enzymes
that comprise intestinal juice break down proteins,
carbohydrates, and fats or lipids.
The nutrients from food are the end products of digestion.
Now that they are in a simple and absorbable form, they are
ready for assimilation, in which nutrients are absorbed and
distributed to all parts of the body. The circulatory system
distributes nutrients to the body cells.
Glucose from the digestion of carbohydrates is used as fuel
for cellular respiration. It may also be stored in the liver as
glycogen, or converted into fatty acids and stored in adipose
tissues. Amino acids and lipids become components of cells
and tissues, along with carbohydrates. Fats are also used as a
source of energy to fuel cellular respiration.
From the lungs, oxygen is distributed by the circulatory
system to all cells of the body. Oxygen diffuses out of the
blood capillaries and into the surrounding cells. At the same
time, carbon dioxide diffuses out of the cell and into the
bloodstream. This is referred to as internal respiration or gas
exchange. The oxygen supplied to the cells of the body is
used for cellular respiration.
Since cells use oxygen to derive energy from the food
they eat, the rate at which oxygen is used depends on the
activity of the cells, which depends on the activity of the
body. For example, when you run, your body burns
more energy and hence, requires more oxygen. The
opposite occurs when you are resting: the cells use less
energy and therefore need less oxygen. To fuel cellular
respiration, the cells use glucose from the food digested
by the digestive system.

Gallbladder
The gallbladder is a pear-shaped sac that is attached to
the visceral surface of the liver by the cystic duct. The
principal function of the gallbladder is to serve as a
storage reservoir for bile. Bile is a yellowish-green fluid
produced by liver cells. The main components of bile
are water, bile salts, bile pigments, and cholesterol. Bile
salts act as emulsifying agents in the digestion and
absorption of fats. Cholesterol and bile pigments from
the breakdown of hemoglobin are excreted from the
body in the bile.