Nutrition (in Plants and Animals)
Nutrition – Nutrition is the process by which organism obtain nutrients from food and
utilise them to obtain energy for their daily activitys, building and repairing of their tissues
Nutrients – Nutrients are those substances which are necessary for the proper growth and
maintenance of the living body. For example – Carbohydrate, Proteins etc.
How many types of nutrition?
1. Autotrophic nutrition
2. Heterotrophic nutrition
1. Autotrophic Nutrition – It is a process in which an organism prepare it own food from
simple inorganic material like water and carbon dioxide in the presence of sunlight.
Example – Some bacteria, Green plants
2. Heterotrophic nutrition – It is the process in which organism depend upon the other
organism for food to survive. For example – Human beings, Amoeba etc.
Nutrition in plants (Photosynthesis)
The process in which green plants convert simple inorganic material carbon dioxide and
water into Complex organic food material glucose in the presence of chlorophyll and
sunlight is called photosynthesis.
Formula:-
Event occur during photosynthesis
• Absorption of light energy by chlorophyll.
• Conversion of light energy into chemical energy and splitting of water in Hydrogen or Oxygen
• Reduction of carbon dioxide to carbohydrates.
Chloroplast – These are the small organism founds in plant cells. It contain chlorophyll
which absorb sunlight for photosynthesis.
Types of heterotrophic nutrition :
1. Saprophytic nutrition
2. Parasitic nutrition
3. Holozoic nutrition
1. Saprophytic Nutrition – The mode of nutrition in which organism obtain food from
dead and decaying organic matter. Those organism who make their food by saprophytic
nutrition are called saprophytes. Example – Bacteria, Fungus
2. Parasitic nutrition – It is a type of Nutrition in which the organism live on or inside the
body of their host and drive food from them without killing them. Those organism who
made their food by parasitic nutrition are called parasites. Example – Mosquito, Lice.
3. Holozoic nutrition – The mode of Nutrition that involve ingestion digestion absorption
and assimilation of liquid or solid organic material. Example – Amoeba, Human beings
How nutrition occurs in amoeba?
It makes its food from holozoic nutrition. And it is a unicellular organism, So that the
nutrition which we see in amobea is different from other animals. Because the whole
process of nutrition inside amoeba takes place inside a single cell. So amoeba is an aquatic
organism.
Nutrition in Humans
Ingestion – The process of taking food in our mouth is called ingestion.
Teeth – It breaks food into small pieces.
Tounge – It taste the food and rotates it inside the mouth.
Salivary gland – It produces Saliva in which an enzyme called salivary amylase is found It
breaks down the starch present in the food into sugar.
Eosophagus – This pushes the food into the stomach. Peristalic movement :- Basically it is a
contraction and expansion movement of wall of food pipe.
Gastric juice –
• HCL :- kills germs and Acidifying the medium.
• Pepsin : - Digests proteins.
• Mucus :- Prevents from the harmful effects of HCL.
Small intestine –
❖ Bile :- Bile juice – Alkaline the food.
Bile salt – It break big fat globules into smaller parts.
❖ Pancreatic juice : - Pancreatic amylase It breaks the carbohydrate and starch into sugar.
Trypsin - It breakdown protein into amino acid.
Lipase - It convert fat into fatty acid and glycerol.
Digestion –
Digestion is the process in which the complex chemical compounds present in the food are
broken down into simpler substances that are readily absorbed and utilized by the body.
Most of the Digestion takes place in Small Intestine.
Absorption –
Digested food is absorbed from the digestive tract and tranported to all body parts.
Villi – It is the finger like projection which increase the surface area for absorption
Assimilation –
Conversion of absorbed food into protoplasmic constituents for repair, growth & storage. It
is an anabolic process.
Egestion –
Undigested components of food are e) Egestion: Ondigested components thrown out of the
body as faccal matter
