Believe it or not, the digestive process starts even before you put food in

your mouth. It begins when you smell something irresistible or when you see
a favorite food you know will taste good. Just by smelling that homemade
apple pie or thinking about how delicious that ice cream sundae is going to
taste, you begin to salivate - and the digestive process kicks in, preparing
for that first scrumptious bite.

Every morsel of food we eat has to be broken down into nutrients that can
be absorbed by the body, which is why it takes hours to fully digest food. In
humans, protein must be broken down into amino acids, starches into simple
sugars, and fats into fatty acids and glycerol. The water in our food and
drink is also absorbed into the bloodstream to provide the body with the
fluid it needs.
ESOPHAGUS AND STOMACH
Foodstuffs entering the stomach have been, to at least some extent, crushed and reduced in size by
mastication, and impregnated with saliva. The stomach provides four basic functions that assist in
the early stages of digestion and prepare the ingest for further processing in the small intestine:

1. It serves as a short-term storage reservoir, allowing a rather large meal to be consumed

quickly and dealt with over an extended period of time.
2. It is in the stomach that substantial enzymatic digestion is initiated, particularly of proteins.
3. Vigorous contractions of gastric smooth muscle mix and grind foodstuffs with gastric
secretions, resulting in liquefaction of food, a prerequisite for delivery of the ingest to the
small intestine.
4. As food is liquefied in the stomach, it is slowly released into the small intestine for further
processing.

LIVER
The liver is the largest gland in the body and performs an astonishingly large number of tasks that
impact all body systems. One consequence of this complexity is that hepatic disease has
widespread effects on virtually all other organ systems. At the risk of losing sight of the forest by
focusing on the trees, we will focus on three fundamental roles of the liver:

• Vascular functions, including formation of lymph and the hepatic phagocytic system.
• Metabolic achievements in control of synthesis and utilization of carbohydrates, lipids and
proteins.
• Secretory and excretory functions, particularly with respect to the synthesis of secretion of
bile.

The latter is the only one of the three that directly affects digestion - the liver, through its biliary tract,
secretes bile acids into the small intestine where they assume a critical role in the digestion and
absorption of dietary lipids. However, understanding the vascular and metabolic functions of the liver
is critical to appreciating the gland as a whole.
SMALL INTESTINE
The small intestine is the portal for absorption of virtually all nutrients into blood. Accomplishing this
transport entails breaking down large supramolecular aggregates into small molecules that can be
transported across the epithelium. An exception to this statement is seen in herbivores, where large
amounts of short chain fatty acids are absorbed at other sites.

By the time ingesta reaches the small intestine, foodstuffs have been mechanically broken down and
reduced to a liquid by mastication and grinding in the stomach. Once within the small intestine, these
macromolecular aggregates are exposed to pancreatic enzymes and bile, which enables digestion to
molecules capable or almost capable of being absorbed. The final stages of digestion occur on the
surface of the small intestinal epithelium.

The net effect of passage through the small intestine is absorption of most of the water and
electrolytes (sodium, chloride, potassium) and essentially all dietary organic molecules (including
glucose, amino acids and fatty acids). Through these activities, the small intestine not only provides
nutrients to the body, but plays a critical role in water and acid-base balance.

LARGE INTESTINNE
The large intestine is the last attraction in digestive tube and the location of the terminal phases of
digestion. In comparison to other regions of the tube, there are huge differences among species in
the relative size and complexity of the large intestine. Nonetheless, in all species it functions in three
processes:

• Recovery of water and electrolytes from ingesta: By the time ingesta reaches the terminal
ileum, roughly 90% of its water has been absorbed, but considerable water and electrolytes
like sodium and chloride remain and must be recovered by absorption in the large gut.
• Formation and storage of feces: As ingesta is moved through the large intestine, it is
dehydrated, mixed with bacteria and mucus, and formed into feces. The craftsmanship (for
want of a better term) with which this is carried out varies among species.
• Microbial fermentation: The large intestine of all species teems with microbial life. Those
microbes produce enzymes capable of digesting many of molecules that to vertebrates are
indigestible, cellulose being a premier example. The extent and benefit of fermentation also
varies greatly among species.
 RECTUM
The last 6 to 8 inches of the large intestine. The rectum stores solid waste until it leaves the body through
the anus. The word rectum comes from the Latin rectus meaning straight (which the human rectum is
not).