The Digestive System

The digestive system is a very interesting system that consists of many parts. How complicated can it possibly be? Let's take a journey to find out.

 Enzymes 

There are three enzymes present in the alimentary canal–

-The Carbohydrases, which digests carbohydrates, which are amylase and maltase

-The Proteases, which digests proteins, which are pepsin and trypsin.

-The Lipases, which digests fat, which are lipids.

 Digestion 

There are two types of Digestion–

-Physical digestion, which include chewing, peristalsis and emulsification.

-Chemical digestion, which enzymes are involved in to break down the foods into smaller molecules to be absorbed by the small intestine.

''' The Alimentary Canal. '''

This part of the digestive system is where most perform digestion and other tasks.

The Mouth

The mouth is the start of the digestion of food. In the mouth, salivary glands produce saliva, which contains salivary amylase, which is a carbohydrase, to digest food chemically in the mouth. That helps break down starch into maltose. The teeth helps to increase the surface area to volume ratio of the food in the mouth, and the tongue rolls the partially digested food into a bolus before it is swallowed into the oesophagus.

The Oesophagus

The oesophagus is basically the gullet, which pushes the bolus down into the stomach for further digestion via muscles that squeeze together to push the bolus down into the stomach

The Stomach

The stomach is a highly toxic places thanks to the hydrochloric acid present in it, which gives it a pH of 2. There, the bolus is pounded by the stomach walls, which contain mucus to prevent the stomach from corroding itself using the hydrochloric acid, to increase the surface area to volume ratio of the bolus. This is called peristalsis. A enzyme called pepsin, which is a protease, in the stomach also digests proteins in the bolus into polypeptides. Food stays here being digested for to  hours until the stomach empties it into the small intestine.

The Small Intestine

The Small intestine is split into 3 parts–The Duodenum, the Jejenum and the Ileum. The Duodenum contains the enzyme maltose which breaks down the maltose into glucose, and trypsin to break down the polypeptides into amino acids, and lipids to break down fats into fatty acids and glycerol. The Ileum contains maltose to digest maltase into glucose, and trypsin to digest polypeptides into amino acids. The walls of the small intestine contains villi, which increase the surface area to volume ratio of the small intestine's inner walls, and contains a thin, selectively permeable membrane called epithelium which is one cell thick, many blood vessels, lacteal, to allow a lot more amino acids, glycerol, fatty acids and glucose to be absorbed.

The Large Intestine

The large intestine is where the undigested food goes to be prepared to be passed out in the anus. Here, the large intestine's walls suck out all the water from the undigested food and sends it to the rectum, and the undigested food is called faeces, or stool.

The Rectum

The rectum is the place where stool is stored.

The Anus

The anus is the place where stool is expelled from the body.

 The Digestive system–Other parts 

The Liver

The liver is where bile, a substance that breaks larger fat droplets into smaller fat droplets to be more efficiently digested by the lipids, is produced.

The Gall Bladder

The gall bladder is where bile is stored and emptied into the small intestine, and can be surgically removed without death if it produces gall stones, which are harmful to the body, due to high concentrations of bile.

The Pancreas

The pancreas is where certain enzymes, like pancreatic amylase, is produced.