In the digestive system, osmosis primarily take place in small and large intestines.

Ingested water is absorbed about 90 percent at the small intestine. Meanwhile, the large
intestine absorbs most of the remaining water. The process of osmosis is a form of passive
transport, where no energy is required. Water diffuses from an area of a lower solutes
concentration to an area of higher solutes concentration. Therefore, the absorption of
water is depended on the osmotic gradients. Whereby, suitable osmotic pressure gradients
are an important factor to assist the net water uptake from the intestines.
In the small intestine, the absorption of water into the body begins in the proximal
and throughout the walls of small intestine. At the beginning of the digestion, the chime
that enters the intestinal tract has a minimal impact on osmotic pressure, due to its large
size of molecules. However, the osmotic pressure increases as the molecules breaks down
into smaller molecules progressively during digestion. Consequently, this hypertonic fluid
will cause the water to enter the small intestine by diffusion. In addition, an increasing of
osmotic pressure is also a result from a crypt cells. A cell at the base of a villi located in
duodenum and jejunum that function to secrete electrolytes such as, chloride, sodium, and
potassium into the small intestine. As a result, higher solutes concentration will draw water
into the lumen of small intestine. On the other hand, as some of the electrolytes and the
end products of food digestion such as maltose, glucose and amino acids are absorbed into
the bloodstream, hypotonic environment insides the small intestine creates an osmotic
pressure to decreases relatively to the gradient of solutes concentration thereby, water is
reabsorbed back into the body.
Furthermore, the primary function of large intestine is to absorb water from the left
undigested food and excreted waste material out of the body. The absorption of water from
the remaining waste is a process known to transform the liquid chime residue into semisolid
faeces. Water absorption occurs at the colon by the same concept osmotic pressure
gradient. The pumping of sodium ions into intercellular space inside the cells surrounding
the intestinal lining cause the intercellular fluid to be hypertonic thereby, creates an osmotic
pressure results water to enter into bloodstream. In spite of the fact that water travels
down an osmotic gradient, the diffusion of water can also be against the osmotic gradient
due to the pumping of sodium ions in to the intercellular fluid. In consequence, this allows
the large intestine to absorbs water despite the blood in capillaries are hypotonic to the
fluid to fluid inside the large intestine.