Chemical Digestion

With Enzymes In
Human Body
A Step-by-Step Process

The Step-by-step Process of Digestion with

Illustrated Diagrams

M.Moaaz Ahmad 8-B

4/8/2010
Thursday, April 08, 2010 Biology M.Moaaz Ahmad 8-B

Chemical Digestion with Enzymes in

Human Body

Food is first bitten, cut into smaller pieces, chewed and mixed with the saliva
produced by the salivary gland at the back of the mouth. The saliva, a
neutral solution of water, contains mucus and salivary amylase, an enzyme
to break down starch to maltose. The food, now called a bolus, then travels
through the esophagus, by peristalsis, while the amylase acts on some of the
starch molecules in the bolus.

The bolus now enters the stomach. The stomach consists of muscular walls
which grind the food to make it semi-liquid. The gastric juice, produced by
the gastric glands, consists of water, mucus, hydrochloric acid, the enzymes
pepsin and rennin. The water is used as a solvent in the hydrolysis of food.
The mucus protects the stomach wall from reacting with the acidic gastric
juice. Hydrochloric acid provides acidic conditions (pH 1-2) for the enzymes
to work. It also kills bacteria brought in with the food. The enzyme pepsin
digests proteins into polypeptides. The enzyme rennin converts milk protein
into curds for hydrolysis by pepsin. The bolus now is called chyme.

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Thursday, April 08, 2010 Biology M.Moaaz Ahmad 8-B

The food then enters the first part of the small intestine, the
duodenum. It receives pancreatic juice (containing pancreatic enzymes,
protease, lipase and amylase) and bile from the gall bladder, which stores
the bile temporarily after receiving it from the liver. The pancreatic juice also
contains sodium hydrogen carbonate which neutralizes acid from the
stomach, producing a pH 7-8. The enzyme protease digests polypeptides into
peptides and amino acid. Lipase digests fats into fatty acids and glycerol and
amylase turns the remaining starch into maltose. The bile mixes in the
chyme which emulsifies fats and oils.

Food now continues from the duodenum to the ileum. Here the
enzymes in the epithelial lining break down maltose into glucose and
peptides into amino acids. Its surface area is increase by villi by 10% which
allow efficient absorption and is further increased by 20% by the microvilli
present on the villi.

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Thursday, April 08, 2010 Biology M.Moaaz Ahmad 8-B

Absorption of the nutrients now takes place.

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