THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM

• Without food, water and oxygen, human beings

could not survive.
• The digestive system is a set of organs which
change what we eat into substances that can be
used in the body.
• These substances can be used for energy,
growth and repair.
 STAGES OF
NUTRITION
There are four stages in human nutrition:
1. Eating (also called “ingestion”)
2. Digestion
3. Absorption of digested food into the blood
4. Elimination of undigested food (also called
“egestion”)
 STAGES OF
NUTRITION
• Digestion is the process by which the large,
complex, insoluble food materials ingested are
broken down by a series of mechanical and
chemical processes into soluble forms which can
be absorbed into the blood and used by the cells
of the body.
• It is an essential process which breaks down
nutrients (useful substances in food) from the
 THE DIGESTIVE
SYSTEM
• The alimentary canal is a tube that runs from
the mouth to the anus
• It is composed of the mouth, oesophagus,
stomach, small intestine and the large intestine
• As food passes through the alimentary canal it is
changed and the nourishment is taken into the
blood
• Waste passes out the end of the canal
• Certain organs and glands add juices to the
canal at various points
• The contents of the alimentary canal are
pushed along by a rhythmic pulsing of the
muscles of the intestines

• This is known as peristalsis

 Mouth
1. Chemical digestion (amylase
Oesophagus converts starch to maltose)
2. Physical digestion (teeth break
Connects mouth food down into smaller
to stomach pieces)
Liver Stomach
Produces 1. Holds the food for a while

bile for the 2. Physical digestion (food is

churned and mixed)
digestion of 3. Chemical digestion (assisted
fats by HCl)
Gall Small intestine
Stores bile
bladder 1. Chemical digestion
2. Absorption of
nutrients into blood
Pancreas Large intestine
Produces digestive (colon)
juices
1. Elimination of waste
Appendix
2. Absorption of water

Anus Rectum
Stores faeces
 Food can be broken down (digested) in one of
two ways:
1. Physical/Mechanical Digestion
This is where large pieces of food are broken
down into smaller pieces of the same food
2. Chemical Digestion
This is where food is broken down into a
different substance that can easily pass into
the blood
• Mechanical digestion begins in the
mouth where it is carried out by the
teeth.

• The teeth are responsible for chewing,

formally known as mastication.
 WHAT THAT MOUTH
DO?
Does your mouth ‘water’ when you are hungry or
when you smell food like a nice cooked meal? The
liquid produced when this happens is called your
saliva. Saliva is a mixture of water, mucous and
salivary amylase. Saliva enters the mouth by the
salivary glands where it is made. When solid food
enters the mouth the teeth are used to bite, cut
and grind the food by the process of chewing. The
other name for chewing is mastication. The tongue
is used to mix the food with saliva and shape it
into a small ball called bolus. The bolus is a small
ball mixed with food and saliva. The bolus makes it
easy to swallow the food.
 MOUTH
The mouth is an organ consisting of the oral cavity
inside the head and containing the teeth, gums
and tongue. It is the main site of mechanical
digestion and is the starting point of the digestive
process overall. Ducts lead in from the salivary
gland which secretes saliva containing salivary
amylase, beginning chemical digestion by
breaking down starches/polysaccharides into
disaccharides (such as maltose). The tongue
(which is also in the mouth) is one of the main
agents in digestion, as it forces the chewed food
down the oesophagus by pressing up against the
soft palate, propelling it towards the stomach.
 FUNCTIONS OF SALIVA
• It lubricates food with mucus, making it easier to
swallow.
• It contains the enzyme salivary amylase, which
acts on cooked starch turning some of it into
maltose.
• It keeps the mouth and teeth clean.
• The ball of food that leaves the mouth is known
as a bolus.
 FUNCTIONS OF THE
TONGUE
• Taste: it is covered with thousands of taste buds.
These are sensitive to salt, sweet, sour and bitter
chemicals in food and drink.
They help us enjoy food and drink and warn us when
food, drink are off or inedible.
• Chewing: the tongue aids chewing by moving the
food around the mouth, pushing it between the teeth
and covering it with saliva, which contains enzymes
that start the digestive process.
The food is turned into a partially digested mass
known as a bolus.
• Swallowing: when the food is ready to travel to the
stomach, the tongue pushes it to the back of the
mouth.
Tongue Taste Centres
Epiglottis

Bitter
Papillae
Taste Buds
Sour

Salt

Sweet
 OESOPHAGUS

• A muscular tube leading from the mouth to the

stomach. The walls contain circular smooth
muscle tissue which, through wave like motions
known as peristalsis, move food (the bolus)
down to the stomach. The muscles contract
behind the bolus and relax in front of it. This is
why you can still swallow even if you are upside
down.
 WHAT HAPPENS AFTER
SWALLOWING?
• When the bolus is swallowed, a flap called the epiglottis
closes over the trachea so the food continues its journey
further down the alimentary canal into the oesophagus or
gullet. When the food enters the oesophagus the walls
begin to contract, pushing the food downwards into the
stomach by the process of peristalsis (the process by
which walls of the alimentary canal contract and relax ).
The epiglottis closes when you swallow to prevent food
from entering the trachea.
 STRUCTURE OF THE
OESOPHAGUS
& FUNCTIONS
• It is a muscular tube.
• It leads from the pharynx to the stomach.
Function
• To carry chewed food from the pharynx to the
stomach.
• Food moves along it by a muscular contraction
known as peristalsis.
• The muscle fibres contract and relax which acts like a
wave on the tube, pushing the bolus forward.
• It’s lining secretes mucus to lubricate the passage of
food.
 TEETH
• An adult human has 32 teeth, 16 in either jaw
• The shape and size of the tooth varies with the
job it has to do
• There are four different types of tooth
 TEETH
Incisors
These cut and bite food
Canines
These grasp and tear food
Pre-molars
These grind and chew food
Molars
These also grind and chew food
 TEETH
Incisor Canine

Pre-molar Molar
 TEETH
• The type of teeth that an animal has depends on
what it eats
• A herbivore eats plant material and has very
large incisors and molars
• A carnivore eats other animals and needs very
large canines
• An omnivore (e.g. humans) eats all kinds of food
and needs and use all of the types of tooth
equally
Class, we have a problem! I just received a
report from the ‘Department of Human
Biology’—a rare condition has been
discovered where a person is born without
saliva. Imagine that! No saliva at all. This
person can eat, but something is going
terribly wrong with their digestion. They
say their food feels dry and hard to
swallow, and no matter how much they
chew, their body isn’t getting the nutrients
it needs. Can you explain what should
normally happen in the mouth during
digestion, and why this person is
struggling?
 ENZYMES
• An enzyme is a biological catalyst
• A catalyst speeds up chemical reactions
• Enzymes speed up biological reactions
• All chemical reactions that take place in living
systems require the action of an enzyme
 ENZYMES
• Digestive enzymes break food down into smaller,
more soluble substances

• This allows the food to be absorbed into the

blood
 ENZYMES

• An example of a digestive enzyme is

amylase

• Amylase is present in saliva

• Amylase chemically breaks down starch into

a sugar called maltose

STARCH → MALTOSE
 ENZYMES
• The substance that an enzyme works on is
known as its SUBSTRATE
• The substance formed by the enzyme is known
as its PRODUCT
• Therefore starch is the substrate for amylase
and maltose is its product
 ENZYMES

• Enzymes, as you know, catalyze chemical

reactions by reducing the activation energy. In
your digestive tract, special organs produce
enzymes that help to break down the complex,
insoluble forms of the substances you ingest.
 There are three main categories of digestive
enzymes

• Carbohydrases, which break down

carbohydrates/polysaccharides and
disaccharides into monosaccharides.
• Proteases, which break down proteins into amino
acids
• Lipases, which break down lipids/fats into fatty
acids and glycerol
 THE STOMACH

Oesophagus
Cardiac Sphincter

Pyloric Sphincter

Duodenum

Body of Stomach
 STOMACH STRUCTURE
• It is a J-shaped, elastic organ.
• Food enters it from the oesophagus through the
cardiac sphincter.
• The cardiac sphincter, is a valve that stops back
flow of the stomach`s contents.
• Food leaves the stomach through the pyloric
sphincter into the duodenum (first part of the
small intestine).
• The walls of the stomach is made up of layers of

muscle.

• It has an inner mucous membrane.

• This membrane has lots of folds.

• When the stomach is full these folds stretch out,

enabling it to expand, then they contract when the

stomach empties.
• Continuing chemical digestion in the stomach, the cells in

the stomach wall secret a mixture of enzymes and acid

known as gastric juice. Gastric juice is composed of

hydrochloric acid, rennin and pepsin.

Hydrochloric acid has several functions within the stomach.

• It has an antibacterial purpose as bacteria cannot

survive in very acidic environments.

• It also inactivates maltase from the saliva (as maltase

has an ideal pH of 7 in the mouth)

• It creates an ideal environment for the action of the

enzymes pepsin and rennin in the stomach, which have

an optimum pH of 2.
• Pepsin begins to break down protein into polypeptides.

• Rennin is an enzyme present in infants that clots soluble

proteins in breastmilk so that the protein is retained in

the stomach.
 FUNCTIONS OF THE
STOMACH
• It digests protein through the action of enzymes.
• It churns food with the gastric juices.
• It helps lubricate the food by producing mucus.
• It absorbs alcohol.
• It kills bacteria by producing hydrochloric acid.
 GASTRIC JUICES

• Hydrochloric acid neutralizes bacteria and activates

pepsin.

• Rennin is an enzyme that curdles milk protein in

infants.

• Pepsin is an enzyme that breaks down proteins into

peptones.
 STRUCTURE OF THE SMALL INTESTINE
• It is seven metres long.
• It is divided into three parts:
⮚ The duodenum
⮚ The jejunum
⮚ The ileum
• The walls has four layers:
⮚ A muscular layer
⮚ A layer containing blood vessels, lymph vessels,
and nerves.
⮚ A submucous layer,
⮚ A mucous layer.
• The inner wall is covered in villi, tiny hair like
projections which increase the surface area for
absorption.
• Each villi contain blood vessels and lymph vessels.
FUNCTIONS OF THE SMALL INTESTINE
DIGESTION
• Pancreatic juice is secreted into the duodenum
and contains the following enzymes:
⮚ Trypsin: converts proteins into shorter chains.
⮚ Lipase: converts fats into fatty acids and
glycerol.
⮚ Amylase: converts starch into disaccharides.
• Bile: emulsifies fats (breaks them into smaller
droplets).
• Intestinal Juices have the following enzymes:
⮚ Maltase, sucrase, lactase: change
disaccharides into monosaccharides.
⮚ Peptidase: changes polypeptides into amino
acids.
 ABSORPTION
• Digested food is absorbed through the villi walls.
⮚ Fats, fatty acids and glycerol are passed into the
lymph system.
⮚ Amino acids and sugars pass along the portal
vein to the liver.
 Ascending Transverse
Descending
Colon Colon
Colon

Caecum

Anus Rectum
Apendix
 WHAT IS THE LARGE INTESTINE

• It deals with waste.

• It is about 1.5m long.
• It consists of the following:
⮚ The caecum: a small pouch; the ileum empties its
contents into the caecum through the ileo-caecal
valve.
⮚ The colon: ascending, transverse, descending colon.
⮚ The appendix: narrow tube attached to the caecum.
⮚ The rectum.
⮚ The anus
 FUNCTIONS
• Whatever remains of the food, is passed into the
large intestine
• To reabsorb water and vitamins left in digestive
waste.
• It secretes mucus to help the movement of faeces.
• Short term storage of faeces in the rectum.
• Many bacteria live in the large intestine, they are
harmless in the colon and may be useful e.g.
produce Vitamin K.
• Defecation: peristalsis pushes waste along the colon
and then it is passed out of the body.