DIGESTION IN THE STOMACH

 The stomach stores food and performs preliminary steps of digestion. This large organ is located in the upper abdominal
cavity, just below the diaphragm. The stomach can store an entire meal that we do not need to eat constantly. Besides storing
food, the stomach performs important digestive functions: It secretes a digestive fluid called gastric juice and mixes this
secretion with the food by the churning action of the smooth muscles in the stomach wall.

Gastric juice is secreted by the gastric glands contained in the epithelium lining of the stomach . With a high concentration of
hydrochloric acid, gastric juice has a pH of about 2

 creates an acidic condition(optimal for the action of the enzymes in the stomach).
 function of the acid is to disrupt the extracellular matrix that binds cells together in meat and plant material.
 the acid also kills most bacteria that are swallowed with food.
 stop the activity of salivary amylase

Also present in gastric juice is pepsin, an enzyme that begins the hydrolysis of proteins. Pepsin breaks peptide bonds(large protein
molecules) adjacent to specific amino acids, cleaving proteins into smaller polypeptides, which are later digested completely to amino
acids in the small intestine. Pepsin is one of the few enzymes that works best in a strongly acidic environment. The low pH of gastric
juice denatures (unfolds) the proteins in food, increasing exposure of their peptide bonds to pepsin.

Proteins + Water polypeptides

Rennin present in the gastric juice coagulates milk by converting the soluble milk protein,caseinogens,into insoluble casein.

Caseinogen + Water casein

The stomach′s second defense against self–digestion is a coating of mucus, secreted by the goblet cells of the gastric glands.Mucus
protects the stomach wall from the action of hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes.

Food stays in the stomach for a number of hours.During this period,food is thoroughly churned and mixed with the gastric juice by the
peristaltic contractions of the stomach wall.As a result of mixing and enzyme action, what begins in the stomach as a recently
swallowed meal becomes a semi-fluid known as acid chyme.

At the opening from the stomach to the small intestine is the pyloric sphincter, which helps regulate the passage of chyme into the
intestine(duodenum), one squirt at a time. It takes about 2 to 6 hours after a meal for the stomach to empty in this way.