Digestive System Organ Functions
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salustianaDigestive System Organ Functions
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salustianaThe tongue functions as a digestive organ by facilitating the movement of food
TONGUE during mastication (chewing) and assisting swallowing. Other important
functions include speech and taste.
The diaphragm is a muscle that helps you inhale and exhale (breathe in and
DIAPHRAGM out). This thin, dome-shaped muscle sits below your lungs and heart.
The gallbladder stores and concentrates bile from the liver. The bile is then
GALLBLADDER released into the first section of the small intestine (the duodenum), where it
helps your body to break down and absorb fats from food.
(stores bile)
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The common bile duct passes through the pancreas and ends in the small
BILE DUCT intestine. Bile is made by the liver and stored in the gallbladder. When food is
being digested, bile is released from the gallbladder and passes through the
pancreas into the small intestine, where it helps digest fats.
The liver regulates most chemical levels in the blood and excretes a product
LIVER called bile. This helps carry away waste products from the liver. All the blood
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PANCREAS
leaving the stomach and intestines passes through the liver.
During digestion, your pancreas makes pancreatic juices called enzymes.
These enzymes break down sugars, fats, and starches. Your pancreas also
helps your digestive system by making hormones. These are chemical
messengers that travel through your blood.
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The appendix acts as a safe house for good bacteria.
APPENDIX
The digestive process starts in your mouth when you chew. Your salivary
MOUTH glands make saliva, a digestive juice, which moistens food so it moves more
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easily through your esophagus into your stomach
(Buccal
Activity)
The esophagus is a muscular tube that connects the pharynx (throat) to the
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OESOPHAGUS stomach.
The stomach is a muscular hollow organ. It takes in food from the esophagus
STOMACH (gullet or food pipe), mixes it, breaks it down, and then passes it on to the
small intestine in small portions.
It helps to further digest food coming from the stomach. It absorbs nutrients
SMALL (vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats, proteins) and water from food so they
can be used by the body.
INTESTINE
LARGE The large intestine absorbs water and changes the waste from liquid into a
stool. Peristalsis helps move the stool into your rectum.
INTESTINE
(COLON)
The last part of the digestive tract, the anus, consists of pelvic floor muscles
and two anal sphincters (internal and external). Together their jobs are to
detect rectal contents, whether they are liquid, gas or solid, and then control
ANUS when stool should and shouldn't be excreted from your body.
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