Digestion Case Study

The digestive tract

Salivary glands and teeth

The salivary glands aid with the teeth in breaking down food into smaller pieces to aid with digestion as an increased surface area leads increased efficiency. They are a form of chemical digestion which involves enzymes breaking down the molecules into smaller pieces in order to increase the surface area or make the molecules needed for consumption these glands Salivary amylase which is used to break down starch into maltose in a process known as Hydrolysis which happens throughout the whole body.

Teeth are modified bones which consist of the Incisors which are used to tear off pieces of food, canines which help the incisors, molars and pre-molars grind up food into smaller pieces so they can be swallowed. Teeth are a form of mechanical digestion in which a part of the body grinds up a substance in order to digest it, this process is also known as mastication.

After exiting the small intestines, the remaining contents enter the large intestine which is responsible for the absorption of water from the food/waste product by the use of Vitamin K and B while not extracting so much as to create a problem with excretion, this being constipation when too much water is extracted making exertion harder or diarrhoea which is caused when not enough water is removed leaving a large amount of liquid in the waste faecal matter.

At the entrance to the large intestine there is a piece of muscle known as the appendix which has become less useful to humans due to evolution but can lead to issues within the body.

The last parts of the large intestine are the Rectum and the Anus, the rectum is responsible for the excretion of faecal matter from the body while the anus is the actually ring of muscle at the end of the rectum which allows for the passage of waste material to exit the body.

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