Digestive System

The human digestive system is adapted to deal successfully with a mixed diet of plant and animal
material.

Major Functions

Digestion: breakdown of complex food into their simple soluble absorbable sub-units.
Absorption: the passage of the products of digestion into the blood or lymph.
Movement of Food: controlled by sphincter muscles, longitudinal and circular muscles in the gut wall.

Five Stages of Human Nutrition

• Ingestion: placing food into the alimentary canal at the mouth.

• Digestion: breakdown of complex food into their simple soluble absorbable subunits.
• Absorption: the passage of the products of digestion into the blood or lymph.
• Assimilation: conversion of the absorbed nutrients into complex molecules for growth, repair
and defence.
• Egestion: expulsion of the undigested and unabsorbed material from the alimentary canal.

Structure of the Human Digestive System:

Textbook Diagram: Human Digestive System

Digestion

Physical Digestion

• The food is physically broken into smaller pieces.

• This speeds up chemical digestion by increasing the food’s surface area.
• The teeth, muscles of the stomach wall and the liver are the structures involved in physical
digestion.

Chemical Digestion
Specific enzymes ‘cut’ the large complex food molecules into new simpler molecules.

Passage of ‘Food’ from Mouth to Anus

Mouth Cavity
Physical Digestion: by the teeth.

Textbook Diagram: Shapes of Teeth.

Four types of teeth:

• incisors — cutting and biting;

• canines — tearing;
• premolars —crush and grind.
• molars —crush and grind.

General Tooth Structure

Textbook Diagrams: external and internal structure of a tooth.

• Crown — above the gum.

• Neck — surrounded by the gum.
• Root — embedded into jawbone.

Details of Tooth Structure

Enamel: to protect the teeth from physical and chemical damage and it gives strength to break the
food.
Dentine: gives the shape and rigidity to the tooth.
Pulp Cavity: contains nerves, blood and lymph vessels.
Cement: glues the tooth to the jawbone.

Human Dentition: omnivorous — adapted for physical digestion of plant material and meat.
Dental Formula: I 2/2; C 1/1; PM 2/2; M 3/3
The dental formula indicates the number of each tooth type on one side of the upper and
corresponding lower jaw.
The total number of teeth is twice the number in the dental formula.

Chemical Digestion in the Mouth

• Salivary glands secrete a digestive juice containing amylase.

• Amylase converts starch to maltose.
• Amylase optimum pH is 8 and optimum temperature 37ºC.
• Saliva moistens the food making it easier to chew and swallow.

Note: for chemical digestion you must choose an amylase, a protease (an enzyme that digests
protein) and a lipase – for each ensure you know the production site, the pH at a named location of its
action and the products.

Pharynx (Throat)

• Special muscles in the wall of the pharynx lift the trachea so the epiglottis during swallowing.
• This closes the opening to the windpipe ensuring that the food or drink enters the
oesophagus.
Oesophagus
Muscles in the wall of the oesophagus propel the swallowed material to the stomach by peristalsis.

Stomach

• The food is temporarily trapped here by the action of sphincter muscles.

• Gastric glands secreted a gastric juice into the lumen of the stomach – pH 2.
• Muscles in the wall of the stomach work to mix the juice throughout the food and physically
break it down.
• The food is also warmed to body temperature, 37°C.
• Hydrochloric acid sterilises the food killing micro-organisms.
• Pepsin, a protease, converts proteins into peptides and amino acids.
• Pepsin’s optimum pH is 8 and temperature 37ºC.
• Salivary amylase activity stops when it is denatured by hydrochloric acid.
• Mucus lines the inner surface of the stomach protecting it from its acid and digestive
enzymes.
• The stomach absorbs water, glucose and salts.

Small Intestine – duodenum, jejenum and ileum

Duodenum (2 + 10 = 12 finger-widths in length)
Receives bile from the liver, pancreatic juice from the pancreas and itself produces many digestive
enzymes.

Bile

• Delivered to the duodenum by way of the bile duct.

• Alkaline salts in the bile assist to raise the pH from pH 2 to pH 8.
• Bile salts emulsify fats – physical digestion – this increases in its surface area of the fat.
• Emulsification greatly speeds up chemical digestion of lipid by lipase.
• Bile also carries excretory product, bile pigments and excess cholesterol.

Pancreatic Juice

• Delivered to the duodenum by way of the pancreatic duct.

• Alkaline salts in the pancreatic raise the pH of the food to pH 8.
• Pancreatic amylase converts starch to maltose.
• Pancreatic lipase converts lipids to glycerol and fatty acids.
• Trypsin, a protease, converts protein to peptides.

Intestinal Juice

• Mucus: protects the wall of the duodenum from the acid food passed from the stomach.
• Amylase: converts starch to maltose.
• Lipase: converts lipids to glycerol and fatty acids.
 • Erepsin: a protease converts protein and peptides to amino acids.

Jejunum and Ileum follow the duodenum — digestion and absorption continue.
Muscles in the wall of the small intestine push the food along by peristalsis.

Absorption of Nutrients

• Over 90% of the food is digested and absorbed.

• Most of the digestion and absorption occurs in the small intestine.

Adaptations of Small Intestine for Absorption

Textbook Diagrams: transverse and longitudinal of small intestine; villus diagram.

• Enormous surface area due to its length, villi and microvilli: for efficient absorption.
• Rich network of blood capillaries: collect the absorbed amino acids and simple sugars.
• Lymphatic capillaries: collect the absorbed ‘lipid’.
• The absorbing surface is very thin: — only one membrane ‘thick’.

The absorbed glycerol and fatty acids are recombined in the absorbing cells forming lipid globules.
These globules are passed into the lymphatic capillary (lacteal) of the villus.
The lacteals drain their contents into the branches of the thoracic lymphatic duct.
T he fat-laden lymph is delivered to the blood at the left subclavian vein.

Large Intestine

Textbook Diagram: transverse section of large intestine — caecum, appendix, colon, rectum, anal
canal.

• The appendix produces defensive lymphocytes and antibodies.

• Symbiotic bacterial in the caecum and colon protect us from pathogenic micro-organisms and
supply us with vitamins B and K.
• The colon’s main function is to reabsorb water preventing excessive water loss from the body.
• The colon also absorbs glucose, vitamins and salts.

Benefits of Dietary Fibre

• Stimulates peristalsis.
• Reduces the risk of colon cancer, heart disease and middle age diabetes.
• Role in the formation of soft faeces so reduced risk of constipation.

The Liver
The liver is dark red and lies in the abdominal cavity just below the diaphragm close to the stomach.
It is the largest internal organ of the human body.

Liver Blood Supply

Textbook Diagram: liver and its associated blood vessels.

Oxygenated blood is delivered to it by the hepatic artery — a branch of the dorsal aorta.
Hepatic portal veins supplies the liver with glucose and amino acids absorbed from the gut.

Functions of the Liver

Regulates the chemical composition of the blood — homeostatic organ.

Production of:

• Bile: bile salts emulsify fat in the small intestine speeding up their chemical digestion,
alkaline salts help neutralise the food from the stomach providing a suitable pH for digestive
enzymes.
• Plasma proteins to maintain the blood at the correct concentration.
• Cholesterol — essential for the cell membrane structure.
• Amino acids — amino acids that the liver cannot make are called ‘essential amino acids’.

Storage

• Excess glucose in the blood is absorbed and stored as glycogen and fat.
• The fat-soluble vitamins are held in reserve in the liver.

Excretion

• Expels excess cholesterol.

• Makes urea waste from excess amino acids in the diet.

Detoxification

• Renders toxic chemicals harmless.

• Breaks down hydrogen peroxide, alcohol, nicotine and other drugs.

Recycling — red blood corpuscles are chemically destroyed and their material recycled.

Immunity — protection against pathogens.

Special white cells are located in the liver to detect and destroy pathogens in the blood supplied to the
liver from the gut.
Plays a role in the regulation of the body temperature: the liver’s metabolism can be altered to vary
its production of heat depending on the homeostatic requirement of the body.