DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
- Only a small amount of food completes the journey
through the digestive tract and this come out in the
form of feces.
- Concerned with the process of ingestion, digestion,
absorption and egestion of food.
Digestive Tract – from the oral cavity to the anus
2 Types of Digestive System
1. Incomplete – there is only a single opening for
ingestion of food and excretion of waste common
among planarians and cnidarians.
2. Complete – has 2 opening for ingestion and
excretion
2 Stages of Digestion
1. Mechanical – food undergoes physical change by
tearing, grinding, and chewing.
2. Chemical – food is broken down into simpler
molecules in the presence of enzymes.
Food – The Body’s Fuel
Energy consumed in an activity
Reading – 65 cal/hr (273 kj/hr)
Sleeping – 60 cal/hr (252 kj/hr)
Eating – 70 cal/hr (292 kj/hr)
Walking – 246 cal/hr (1,083 kj/hr)
Swimming – 384 cal/hr (1,612 kj/hr)
Running – 576 cal/hr (2,419 kj/hr)
Energy consumed by body parts
1. Muscle – 20%
2. Liver – 20%
3. Brain – 11%
4. Heart – 11%
5. Fats – 9%
6. Kidneys – 8 %
7. Others – 13%
The Process of Digestion
1. Oral Cavity
A. Teeth
- Incisors (chisel-shaped) 8 at the front of the mouth
cut bite-sized chunks out of the food, slicers
- Canines (4) grippers (cuspids)
- Premolars a.ka. bicuspids (8) tearers and molars
(12) grinders
- Humans have only two sets of teeth 1) Milk teeth –
composed of 20 teeth that develops in the jaw
before birth 2) 32 larger teeth pushes the milk
teeth out from 7 – 14 years old teeth chop and
ground food and moistened with saliva
- Saliva lets you 1) taste the food, 2) to kill some of
the germs that might be in the food through the
enzyme lysozyme that acts as an antiseptic, 3)
contains an enzyme that changes starch in the food
into sugars.
- Salivary glands make over 1.2 L of saliva every day
- Tongue mixes with the food to make it soft and
mushy
- Upper jaw muscles cannot move, powerful muscles
pull the lower jaw upward to bite and chew
- Muscles in the cheeks also help move food around
the mouth
- Bolus – soft mushy ball tongue moves it to the
mouth
- As soon as the food passes into the throat the
trapdoors epiglottis slam shut across the inner
entrance to the nose and windpipe to make sure
the food goes the right way
- Swallowing is a reflex action, when something goes
wrong another reflex action makes you choke
- Peristalsis – muscular walls of the esophagus push
the food down into the stomach
2. Stomach – a j shaped bag where food stays for 4
hours
- Sphincter muscle - ring at the entrance of stomach
opens to let food in and closes to stop acidic gastric
juices and digesting food to go back to the throat.
- Heart burn a painful, burning sensation that feels
as if it is coming from the center of the chest, just
above the stomach is caused by the opening of the
cardiac sphincter due to overeating or an excess of
caffeinated drinks
- has strong muscles that squeeze and churn the
food
- gastric juices pour into the stomach from glands in
the stomach lining – juices contain enzyme and HCl
to allow the enzyme pepsin work
- acid kills germs that might be in the food
- slimy mucus protects the stomach from enzymes
and acid
o half million cells die – stomach lining must
be replaced every minute
o the more you eat the more the stomach
stretches
o for 2 hours the stomach muscles mash the
food and ix it with the acid and enzyme to
form chime
o chime is forced bit by bit through the
pyloric sphincter at the exit from the
stomach to the small intestine
o stomach shrinks into its usual size again
3. Small Intestine
- Simple food molecules are absorbed by small
intestine and into the blood which transport them
to the liver for processing
- Simple molecule – glucose – carbohydrate
digestion, amino acids – protein digestion, fatty
acids – fat digestion
- Adult’s small intestine is 22 feet (7m) long and 1
inch (2.5 cm) in diameter
- Villi - fingerlike in the folds of the small intestine
microvilli – like bristles of a bursh, increases the
surface area
- Duodenum – first 1 foot (30cm) of the small
intestine, chime takes about one hour to pass
slowly through it.
- 2 main parts of small intestine – jejunum and ileum
- Jejunum – where most digested foods are absorbed
 - Ileum – where digested fats are absorbed process
takes about 6 hours
4. Large Intestine
- Also called colon – divided into three parts –
ascending, traverse, descending
- About 10 hours after eating, a mushy paste of
undigested food reaches the large intestine
- Takes another 20 hours to pass completely through
body
- 6 feet (2 m) long and 2.5 inches (6.5 cm) in
diameter
- Feces - waste material that gathers in the large
intestine, consist of dead cells from the gut wall,
mucus, the remains of digestive juices, bacteria,
and some water, as well as hard indigestible bits of
food, mainly the fibers from fruits, vegetables, and
grains
- bacteria in the large intestine produce certain
vitamins that are absorbed by the blood; produce
foul smelling gas
- water is absorbed through the large intestine, so
waste materials become more solid
- too much water diarrhea, too little constipation
5. Rectum – where waste material are stored
6. Anus - 2 sphincters have to open to allow waste material
to leave the body
Accessory Organs
1. Salivary glands – secretes enzymes
2. Pancreas - produce alkaline juice to neutralize the
effects of HCl
- pancreatic juice allows the enzymes to work to
break down large molecules into smaller ones
3. Gall Bladder – squirts bile onto chime into the small
intestine
- Bile - is made in the liver, acts on fats the way
liquid soap does, breaking them down into tiny
droplets so they too can be worked on by enzymes
in a process known as emulsification
4. Liver result, the feces become hard and dry, which may make
- Monitors the energy giving glucose in the blood elimination difficult.
- Changes the extra glucose into glycogen and stores
it 1. Cancerous tumors may develop in any part of the
- As the body burns up glucose energy the liver raids digestive system, though the most commonly occur in the
its store of glycogen and changes it back into large intestine, rectum, and anus (see Colorectal Cancer).
glucose to keep you going 2. Colitis, which has various causes, is a potentially life –
- Waste disposal unit, as blood passes through it, it threatening inflammation of the large intestine (see
filters out excess amino acids and changes them Ulcerative Colitis)
into urea which leaves the body in the form of a 3. Chronic conditions that cause at least intermittent
urine distress include irritable bowel syndrome, caused by
- Breaks down worn-out red blood cells and cleanses spasms of muscles in the lower intestine, and Crohn’s
the blood of poisons taken in by the body, such as disease, an inflammation of the intestines. Abnormal
drugs and pesticides sensitivity to proteins called glutens can damage lining of
the small intestine and hinder absorption of nutrients,
Healthy Eating leading to malnutrition and other problems.
55 – 60 % carbohydrates 4. The eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia
15% - proteins disrupt the normal functioning of the digestive system and
30% - fats are potentially fatal.
(Other Disorders see Digestive System PDF copy)
If you eat more food that what the body needs the excess
are stored as fats
Common infectious agents that attack digestive organs
1. mumps virus, which often infects the salivary glands;
2. the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, which causes most
stomach and duodenal ulcers
3. gastroenteritis, often called stomach flu or traveler’s
diarrhea
4. Appendicitis is an inflammation of the appendix, a tube-
like pouch about 9 cm (3.5 in) long that branches off the
large intestine. It occurs most commonly among children
and young adults.
5. Diarrhea – frequent elimination of loose, watery feces –
is a symptom of many disorders that occurs when the large
intestine is irritated or inflamed. As a result, food residues
move through it too quickly for it to absorb the excess
water.
6. Constipation occurs when the large intestine absorbs too
much water because food residues are moving slowly. As a