Jurongville Secondary School

Secondary 3 Express Biology Notes

Syllabus 5100

Name: _________________________ ( )

Class: Sec 3___ Date: ____________

Chapter 6: Digestion

The Digestive System must accomplish the following tasks

• Ingestion
• Digestion  Physical + Chemical Digestion
• Absorption
• Assimilation
• Egestion

Oesophagus

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6.1 Mouth and Buccal Cavity (Ingestion Phase)

Teeth
• Function: grind and break down food  expose food to a large surface area for
enzyme action

Tongue:
• Function: Rolls food into bolus (a ball of solid mass of food) before swallowing Physical
Digestion
Salivary Glands secrete saliva into the buccal cavity

Function of saliva:
• Dilutes and moistens food  mucus sticks food together  form bolus
• Lubricates bolus for swallowing
• Contains Salivary Amylase
Salivary amylase
- Function: breaks down starch into sugars: Starch  Maltose

6.2 Pharynx (Ingestion Phase)

• A cavity that connects the mouth to the Oesophagus, it also connects the nose
and mouth (via the larynx) with the trachea (windpipe)
• Epiglottis  flap-like cartilage (a soft bone)
o Prevents food particles from entering trachea
o Covers the larynx when food is being swallowed

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6.3 Oesophagus

• Muscular tube  takes food from the mouth and pushes it down through the neck
into the stomach.
• Moves food by waves of muscle contractionperistalsis.

Circular muscle
contracts Contracts

• When Circular muscle contracts  Longitudinal muscle relax

• When Longitudinal muscle contracts  Circular muscle relax
• When one muscle contracts  the other relax (antagonistic action)

6.4 Stomach (Chemical Digestion)

Oesophageal sphincter

Pyloric sphincter

• Have thick muscles in its wall  contract to mash the food into a sloppy soup.
• Mucous coat lining  contain gastric pits
o Gastric pits  contain gastric glands  secrete gastric juices.

o Function: These break down the food in a chemical way.

• Two valves control the entrances of food into and out of the stomach

o Oesophageal Sphincter - opening between Oesophagus and stomach.

o Function It stops the acid in the stomach from flowing back up (reflux)
into the Oesophagus. If there is damage or weakness to this valve,
stomach contents, including hydrochloric acid, flow up into the
Oesophagus and cause injury to the lining of the Oesophagus. This
causes pain, commonly called "heartburn" or "acid reflux".

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 o Pyloric Sphincter – when relaxes, it opens the entrance to the small intestine.
o A layer of mucus prevents the stomach from digesting itself.
o Food in the stomach is converted into a thick acidic liquid called chyme, which
then moves into the small intestine (via peristalsis)

6.5 Small Intestines

o Length of 6 m in Man.
o Consists of
o U-shaped duodenum,
o Jejunum
o Ileum
o Lining contains glandsproduce digestive
enzymes that continue the chemical
breakdown on the food. Finally the
nutrients are small enough to pass through
the lining of the small intestine, and into the
bloodcarried away to the liver and other
body parts to be processed, stored and
distributed.
o The small intestine consists of minute
fingerlike projections called villiincrease
the surface area of the small intestines.

o Nutrients are absorbed across the

villi and into the blood stream (via
capillaries) as chyme travels down
the small intestine.

6.6 Pancreas

o Produce pancreatic juices

containing digestive enzymes

o Secretes the hormone insulin 

involved in the conversion of
excess glucose into glycogen

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6.7 Gall Bladder

o Small baglike part tucked under the liver.

o It stores fluid called bile, which is made in the
liver.
o As food from a meal arrives in the small
intestine, bile flows from the gall bladder along
the bile duct into the intestine.
o Bile emulsifies fats  but does not contain
enzyme  cannot digest food

6.8 Liver

o Produces bile.
o Also, blood from the intestines flows to the
liver, carrying nutrients, vitamins and minerals,
and other products from digestion.
o The liver is like a food-processing factory with
more than 200 different jobs.
o It stores some nutrients, changes them from
one form to another, and releases them into
the blood according to the activities and needs
of the body

o It also serves to detoxify blood of harmful

substances like alcohol and nicotine.
6.9 Large Intestine

o Any useful substances in the

leftovers, such as water and
minerals salts, are absorbed
through the walls of the large
intestine, back into the blood.
o Helps to remove bacteria during
egestion
o The remains are formed into
brown, semi-solid faeces
removed from the body.
o Has two parts:
o Colon

o Rectum

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6.10 Chemical Digestion

Structure Digestion Activity

Mouth Starch ---> maltose Chewing  breaks up food into
Salivary amylase
smaller pieces
Oesophagus No Chemical Digestion Food travels down with the help
of
• Gravity
• Peristalsis
Oesophageal No Chemical Digestion Relaxes  allows food bolus to
sphincter enter stomach
Stomach Hydrochloric acid (HCl) • Stops action of salivary
(pH = 2) amylase
HCl
Pepsinogen ---> pepsin
Prorennin --->
HCl rennin
Protein Digestion
Pepsin
Proteins ---> Polypeptides

Rennin / Ca ions
Caseinogen ---> Casein
Curdling of milk proteins
Pepsin
Casein ---> Polypeptides

Food liquefies  becomes chyme

Pyloric Relaxes  opens a channel to
sphincter the small intestine
Small intestine Carbohydrate Digestion
(duodenum) Pancreatic amylase
Starch ---> Maltose

Maltase
Maltose ---> 2 x Glucose

Sucrase
Sucrose ---> glucose + fructose

Lactase
Lactose ---> glucose + galactose

Fat Digestion
Bile breaks fats into small fat
molecules --> emulsified fats
Lipase --> Increase SA: vol ratio of fats --

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 Emulsified fats ---> Fatty acids + > speed up fat digestion
Glycerol
Protein Digestion
Enterokinase
Trypsinogen ---> Trypsin

Trypsin
Proteins ---> Polypeptides

Erepsin
Polypeptides ---> amino acids

6.11 Absorption (Adaptations for absorption)

Structure of small intestine Adaptation to function

Has lots of projections (villi) Increase SA --> faster rate of absorption of
digested food
Villus epithelial cells bear a lot of microvilli To further increase SA
Villus contains
• Blood capillaries • Transport sugar and amino acids;
• Transport fats away from small
• Lacteals intestine
--> So that diffusion gradient
maintained --> digested food continued
to be absorbed.

Diagram of a structure of a villus:

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 6.12 Absorption Process

Water
& Simple sugars + mineral salts + Fatty acids Glycerol
mineral vitamins + amino acids
salts Pass through villi

Absorbed by
React with bile salts
Large Blood capillaries Form
intestine
Soluble soaps
Other parts of body

Diffuse into villi epithelium

Soluble soaps + glycerol --> small fat globules

Absorbed by lymphatic capillaries

6.13 Assimilation

Simple sugars + amino acids

Hepatic vein
Hepatic portal Distributed round body & used
vein Remaining

In Liver
Simple sugars Amino acids
Excess glucose --> glycogen
Excess amino acids --> urea

Tissue respiration Growth & repair of

worn-out body parts

Used as building
blocks of enzymes
and hormones

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 Fats
Fats
Enter

Lymphatic capillaries
Excess fats Glucose insufficient

Fats + Lymph
Stored in adipose tissues Fats transported to
Form • Fat storage liver --> converted
Chyle • Insulation to oxidizable forms

Transported in Lymph
vessels

6.14 Functions of Liver

Bile production  stored in
Digestion gall bladder
Liver
Deamination of excess amino
Assimilation acids  urea + glycogen
Release Hb back
to
Regulation of blood
Breakdown of glucose level
RBC in spleen
After heavy meal
insulin converts
Protein synthesis Fasting (glucagon
converts)

Glycogen  Glucose Glucose  Glycogen

Detoxification Eg. Breakdown
 enter into  stored
of alcohol  bloodstream
acetaldehyde
(harmless)
Otherwise Stimulate HCl (acidic) secretion in the
stomach
Excessive
alcohol
consumption
leads to
Liver cirrhosis  liver cells killed 
replaced with fibrous tissue  liver failure