Digestion and absorption

of food
Supriya Bhattarai
MSc Nutrition and Dietetics
• It is series of reactions of food with the digestive hormones and juices.
This starts right from the oral cavity.
• It is important as it breaks down carbohydrate, protein and fats into its
smaller units that can be absorbed by the cells .
• Digestion includes a complex combination of mechanical and chemical
processes. Some of the activities in the process include
• ingestion
• propulsion of food
• mechanical or physical digestion
• chemical digestion
• absorption
• defecation
• The digestion process can be divided into different stages, such as
digestion in the:
• Oral cavity
• Stomach
• Small intestine
• Large intestine
 Digestion in oral cavity
• When food is taken in through the mouth, chewing and mixing of the food occurs.
There is also a chemical breakdown of carbohydrates, due to the action of saliva
from the salivary glands.
• 30% of the starch is hydrolyzed by the action of amylase, which is a salivary
enzyme. The other enzyme, lysozyme is an antibacterial agent that prevents
infections.
• Starch + Salivary amylase → Maltose
• Mastication of food and swallowing of food are the important activities that take
place here in the oral cavity.
• Food is broken down into smaller particles by the chewing action of teeth. As
saliva is added, it mixes with the food particles, slowly moistening and lubricating
the food. This small ball is called a bolus, which is then swallowed.
• The pharynx helps in the movement of the bolus into the esophagus, from where it
moves to the stomach through the peristaltic movements of the esophagus.
 Digestion in the stomach
• When food reaches the stomach, it stays for approximately 4 to 5 hours.
There are various gastric glands in the mucosa lining of the stomach.
• The mucus neck cells secrete mucus. The Peptic Cells secrete the
proenzyme pepsinogen. The Parietal or Oxyntic Cells secrete HCl
(Hydrochloric acid) and intrinsic factor that is essential for vitamin B12
absorption.
• Food in the stomach gets mixed thoroughly with the gastric juices through
the churning movements of the stomach muscle. This mass of food that is
semi-digested, acidic and pulpy is called the chyme. It is mostly the
proteins that get digested in the stomach. The mucus and the bicarbonates
of the gastric juice help in protecting the mucosal epithelium from the
highly acidic HCl. Mucus also helps in lubricating the food.
• The different chemical reactions that take place in the stomach are
summarised as follows.
• Gastric juices and enzymes:
• HCl provides the acidic pH.
• Pepsinogen(proenzyme) is converted into Pepsin by HCl
• Pepsin, in turn, converts protein into peptones & proteoses.
• Prorenin (proenzyme) is converted into Renin by HCl.
• Casein (milk protein) is converted into peptides by Renin.
• After the action of the gastric juices and enzymes, food then enters the
small intestine.
 Digestion in small intestine
• In the small intestine, further digestion takes place. Due to the various
movements of this organ, the chyme is further mixed and churned. There are
many enzymes that are secreted into the small intestine from organs such as
pancreas, liver; apart from the intestinal juices. All these react with the food
particles and digest them into smaller particles that can be absorbed into the
bloodstream.
• The different chemical reactions that occur are summarised below:
• Pancreatic juices:
• Amylase converts starch into Maltose.
• Enterokinase converts Trypsinogen into Trypsin
• Trypsin converts proteins into Dipeptides
• Trypsin converts Chymotrypsinogen into Chymotrypsin.
• Chymotrypsin converts peptones into Dipeptides.
• Trypsin converts Procarboxypeptidase into Carboxypeptidase.
• Carboxypeptidase converts proteoses into Dipeptides.
• Trypsin converts Proelastase into Elastase.
• Elastase converts elastin into Dipeptides.
• Pancreatic amylase converts polysaccharides (Starch) into
Disaccharides.
• Nucleases in the pancreatic juice, act on nucleic acids and form
nucleotides and nucleosides.
• Intestinal juices:
• Maltase converts maltose into
glucose.
• Sucrase converts sucrose into
glucose & fructose.
• Lactase converts lactose into
glucose & galactose.
• Aminopeptidases convert peptides
into amino acids.
• Dipeptidases convert dipeptides into
amino acids
• Bile -Bile converts fat globules into fat droplets through a process
called emulsification. Fats are broken down into diglycerides and
monoglycerides.
• Pancreatic lipase – It converts triglycerides into fatty acids &
glycerol.
• The bio macromolecules are broken down in the duodenum region. All
the simpler forms of the digested food are absorbed in the jejunum and
ileum regions. Any leftover undigested, unabsorbed food particles are
then passed on to the large intestine.
Digestion in large intestine
• In the large intestine, the digestion activity is significantly less. Here,
bacterial action on the leftover food particles occurs. Minerals, water,
and certain drugs are absorbed in the large intestine. The mucus
secreted by the large intestine helps in holding the waste particles, apart
from lubricating it.
• Any undigested and unabsorbed waste particles called as the faecal
matter, are then passed to the rectum, from where it is eliminated
through the anus.
Digestion of Carbohyrates
• The carbohydrate diet mainly consists of polysaccharides (starch and
glycogen) and disaccharides (sucrose and milk lactose). It also contains
indigestible cellulose, hemicelluloses and pentosans etc
• Mouth:
• Salivary amylase (ptyalin) starts the digestion of cooked starch in the mouth.
But very little digestion takes places in the mouth since the food remains in the
mouth for a very short period of time.
• Stomach:
• Since the food gets mixed with the gastric juice the action of amylase ceases
due to high acidity. Some of the sucrose present in the food get hydrolysed by
the action of HCl in the stomach.
• The pancreatic amylase in the small intestine converts starch and glycogen
into a mixture of maltose and isomaltose.
• Then maltose and isomaltose along with su­crose, lactose present in the diet
are digested by the different disaccharidases present in the intestinal
mucosa into their corresponding monosaccharides as shown.
• Cellulose is not digested in human G.I. tract due to the absence of
cellulase.
Absorption of carbohydrates
• Galactose and glucose are absorbed at a faster rate than fructose. Pentose’s
are slowly absorbed.
• This is due to the fact that glucose and galactose are actively transported
while fructose, mannose and pentose’s are absorbed by simple dif­fusion.
• The monosaccharides are absorbed into the mucosal cells of small intestine
and pass into cir­culation via portal vein. The microvilli (brush border)
lining the mucosa cells greatly help the absorption by increasing the
surface area.
• The rate of absorption of monosaccharides is independent of blood sugar
concentration. Glucose and galactose for absorption follow the active
transport against a concentration gradi­ent; because they have the same
chemical char­acteristics which are necessary for active transport
mechanism.
 Digestion of protein
• Digestion in stomach
• The digestion happens through gastric juice.
• Role of gastric HCL
• Denaturation of protein
• Activates pepsinogen to pepsin
• Makes PH of the stomach suitable for the action of pepsin
• Pepsin
• It acts on the central peptide bond of the aromatic protein
• Renin
• It is a milk clotting enzyme.
• It acts on casein and converts it into soluble paracasein which in turn binds
with calcium to form calcium paracaseinate. It is then digested by pepsin .
• Digestion in small intestine
• Trypsin
• it hydrolyses central peptide bond in which the carboxyl group belongs to
basic amino acids e.g, arginine , lysine, histidine
• It is secreted as inactive form trypsinogen which is activated by enterokinase.
• Chymotrypsin
• It hydrolyses central peptide bond which the carboxyl group belongs to
aromatic amino acids.
• It is secreted as inactive form chymotrypsinogen which is activated by trypsin.
• Elastase
• It acts on peptide bond formed by glycine, alanine , serine.
• It is secreted in active form proelatase which is activated by trypsin.
• It digests elastin and collagen .
• Carboxypeptidase
• An exopeptidase that hydrolyzes the terminal peptide bond at the carboxyl
terminus of the polypeptide chain.
• Secreted in an inactive form called procarboxypeptidase and activated by
trypsin.
• Intestinal juice
• Aminopeptidase
• Exopeptidase that acts on the terminal peptide bond at the amino terminus of
the polypeptide chain
• It releases a single amino acid.
• Tripeptidase
• It acts on tripeptides
• It releases a single amino acid and dipeptide
• Dipeptidase
• It acts on dipeptides
• It releases 2 amino acids
the end products of protein digestion in the small intestine are amino
acids.
Protein absorption
• It is an active process that needs energy
• Energy needed is derived from hydrolysis of ATP
• It occurs in small intestine
• Absorption of amino acids is rapid in the duodenum and jejunum but
slow in ileum.
Fats

• Lipids are large molecules and generally are not water-soluble.

• Stomach
• This mixture enters your stomach. In your stomach, your stomach cells secrete gastric
lipase. About 30% of your TG is digested by your gastric lipase and become diglyceride
(DG), glycerol, and free fatty acid (FFA).
• Small intestine:
• Your gallbladder releases the fat digestive enzyme known as bile. Bile contains
bile salts such as lecithin, a phospholipid that acts as an emulsifier.
i) The bile exposes your TG and DG, so that it can be more easily digested by
pancreatic lipase. TG and DG are broken down into monoglyceride (MG),
glycerol, and FFA.
ii) Your phospholipids are digested by pancreatic phospholipase into
lysolecthicin/LsPL and FFA.
iii) Your cholesterol esters are digested by cholesterol esterase into cholesterol
and FFA.
• The key issue in the digestion and absorption of fats is one of solubility
lipids are hydrophobic, and thus are poorly soluble in the aqueous
environment of the digestive tract. The digestive enzyme, pancreatic
lipase, is water soluble and can only work at the surface of fat globules.
• Digestion is greatly aided by emulsification, the breaking up of fat globules
into much smaller emulsion droplets. Bile salts and phospholipids are
amphipathic molecules that are present in the bile. Motility in the small
intestine breaks fat globules apart into small droplets that are coated with
bile salts and phospholipids, preventing the emulsion droplets from re-
associating.
• The emulsion droplets are where digestion occurs. Emulsification greatly
increases the surface area where water-soluble pancreatic lipase can work
to digest TAG. Another factor that helps is colipase, an amphipathic protein
that binds and anchors pancreatic lipase at the surface of the emulsion
droplet.
 Micelles
• After digestion, monoglycerides and fatty acids, fat soluble vitamins and cholesterol associate
with bile salts and phospholipids to form micelles. Micelles are about 200 times smaller than
emulsion droplets
• Micelles transports the lipids from intestinal lumen to the membrane of the intestinal mucosal
cells, the site of lipid absorption . Absorption through the plasma membrane is by diffusion.
• Micelles are constantly breaking down and re-forming, feeding a small pool of monoglycerides
and fatty acids that are in solution.
• Only freely dissolved monoglycerides and fatty acids can be absorbed, NOT the micelles.
Because of their nonpolar nature, monoglycerides and fatty acids can just diffuse across the
plasma membrane of the enterocyte.

Syntesis in intestinal mucosal cells: short and medium chain fatty acids doesn’t undergo
modification while long chain fatty acids gets activated by thiokinase ( fatty acyl CoA derivatives )
in intestinal cells . The acyl CoA derivative so formed combine with 2- monoacylglycerols to
produce triacylglycerols. Further within the intestinal cells cholesterol is converted to cholesteryl-
ester and phospholipids are regenerated .
• Once inside the enterocyte, monoglycerides and fatty acids are re-
synthesized into TAG. The TAG is packaged, along with cholesterol and fat
soluble vitamins, into chylomicrons. Chylomicrons are lipoproteins, special
particles that are designed for the transport of lipids in the circulation.
• Chylomicrons are released by exocytosis at the basolateral surface of the
enterocytes. Because they are particles, they are too large to enter typical
capillaries.
• Instead they enter lacteals, lymphatic capillaries that poke up into the
center of each villus. Chylomicrons then flow into the circulation via
lymphatic vessels, which drain into the general circulation at the large
veins in the chest.
• Chylomicrons deliver absorbed TAG to the body's cells. TAG in
chylomicrons and other lipoproteins is hydrolyzed by lipoprotein
lipase, an enzyme that is found in capillary endothelial cells.
Monoglycerides and fatty acids released from digestion of TAG then
diffuse into cells.
Cholesterol absorption