Today I learnt about the Human digestive system in class. The system is made up of several organs working together to form a specific function. These organs include, mouth, salivary gland, oesophagus, stomach, liver, gall bladder, pancreas, small intestine, large intestine, rectum and anus.
In the mouth, both physical and chemical digestion take place. The teeth help break large food pieces while food is mixed with saliva produced by salivary glands which breaks down starch into maltose.
No digestion takes place in the oesophagus. Muscles in its wall contract and relax to produce a wave-like movement that pushes the food into the stomach. This is called peristalsis.
Both physical and chemical digestion take place in the stomach. The stomach can expand to take in various amounts of food and also contract to churn the food to mix it with gastric juice. Gastric juice is a type of digestive juice produced by the stomach lining and it contains hydrochloric acid and proteases.
The small intestine is where most chemical digestion and absorbtion of food takes place. Nutrients are absorbed from the food and then passed on to th large intestine.
The large intestine absorbs water from the food. Then the waste products will be stored in the rectum and then passed out through the anus.
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