CHAPTER VIII.

DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
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Digestion
 The process of preparing food for
absorption and assimilation.
 It is the process of breaking down of food
into small water-soluble food molecules
so that it can be absorbed into the body of
organisms.
Food

 Any substance which contains nutrients

and essential requirement of an organism
like proteins, carbohydrates and fats to
supply energy, sustain growth and vital
processes.

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Categories of animals based on dietary habits

1. Herbivorous animals
 These animals feeds mainly on plants
 Examples: Cattle, deer, goat, sheep, horse etc...
2. Carnivorous animals
 They eat entirely or largely on meat of other animals
 Examples: Cat, Lion, Tiger, sharks, flesh flies etc...
3. Omnivorous animals
 They eat various plants and animals
 They are known as general feeders
 Examples: human, bears, rats, etc.
4. Saprophagous animals
 Animals feed on decaying organic matter
5. Scavengers
 They eat dead animals
 Example: vultures and some insects
6. Insectivorous animals
 They feed primarily on insects
 Example: Frogs, lizards, birds, and other mammals
 Feeding mechanism

1. Microphagous feeders
 They feed on small particles either living or dead.
 Examples: paramecia, certain protozoans, some sea
anemones, certain fishes, and tadpoles.

2. Macrophagous feeders
 They use larger particles as feeds.
 Examples: humans, mammals and other higher forms
of animal

3. Animals that feed on fluids

 Mosquitoes and ticks (they suck blood)
 Aphids (they pump in plant juices)

Digestive Mechanisms of various animals

 Various animals differ in general form, structural details and physiologic
processes according to the nature of the food, manner of life, and other factors.
 The means for taking and using food are essentially alike in that materials from
the external environment are brought into intimate contact with the internal
membranous surfaces where digestion and absorption takes place.

Invertebrate Digestion
 Many protozoans have no permanent structures for taking or digesting food.
 The digestion of protozoans and sponges are intracellular.

Intracellular digestion
 A small food particle that are engulfed by the
process of phagocytosis at the cell surface become
surrounded by fluid filled vacuoles into which
digestive enzymes are released.
 These enzymes is probably carried by lysosomes.

Extracellular digestion
 The food that has entered the digestive tract is acted upon by enzymes secreted
from gland cells in the interior lining of the digestive tract.
 It occurs in the higher form of animals.
In invertebrates the digestive tract is either
1. Coelenteronic or incomplete
2. Enteronic or complete

Coelenteronic
 The food enters an opening (mouth) and the undigested residues pass out on the
same opening.
 Examples are:
 Cnidarians with definite mouth connected to a sac-like digestive
(gastrovascular) cavity.
 Flatworms (except tapeworms) have a mouth and a branched digestive
tract extending to all parts of the body.
Enteronic
 In most other vertebrates the digestive tract is essentially a tube within the body.
 It opens to the outside through the mouth and anus and is separated from the
interior body spaces by selectively permeable membranes.
 The food enters the mouth and passes through various organs for storage,
digestion, or absorption and any residues pass out the anus at the opposite end
of the system.
 Example: digestive tract of earthworm

Entoronic digestive tract is composed of:

 Mouth with lips to grasp food
 Esophagus to carry food to the crop
 Crop for the storage of food
 Gizzard where food is ground against particles of
sand
 Intestine with pouchlike lateral extensions providing a large surface for
absorption of digested portion.
 Anus on the posterior end for the passage of undigested residues.

Incomplete vs. complete digestive tract

Vertebrate Digestion
 Organization and Regional Function of the Alimentary Canal of animals

The animals’ alimentary canal can be divided into five major regions:
1. Reception
2. Conduction and storage
3. Grinding and early digestion
4. Terminal digestion and absorption and
5. Water absorption and concentration of solids

1. Reception- this region is composed of organs of the digestive tract which is responsible for
the entry of food particles into the animals body
Mouth and mouth cavity
Teeth to grasp, tear or chew food
Tongue may help in capturing or manipulating the food
Salivary glands secretes saliva to lubricate the food and start digestion.
Pharynx
 Has no direct digestive function
 Contains gill slits on fishes and some aquatic amphibians

Salivary amylase (Ptyalin)

 It is a carbohydrate splitting enzyme that begins hydrolysis of plant and
animal starches.
  It is found only in certain herbivorous molluscs, some insects, and in primate
mammals, including humans.
 Salivary amylase does not completely hydrolyze starch, but breaks it down
mostly into two glucose fragments called maltose.

2. Conduction and Storage Region- this region serves as a passage way of food paricles from
the upper region to the lower region were the process of digestion occurs.
Esophagus (gullet)
 Is a flexible tube that served to carry food down to lower part of the digestive
tract.
 Serves to transfer food to the digestive region.
 In many invertebrates (annelids, insects, octopods) the esophagus is expanded
into a crop.

Crop
 It is used for food storage before digestion.
 Among vertebrates only birds have a crop.
 This crop serves to store and soften food (grain, for example) before it passes to
the stomach, or to allow mild fermentation of food before it is regurgitated to feed
nestlings (crop milk of pigeons).

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Digestive tract of humans and birds

3. Region of Grinding and Early Digestion- this region is the site wherein food particles from
the upper part is further broken down into smaller food particles.

Stomach
 Is a large pouch where food is stored and some digestion occurs.
 It provides initial digestion as well as storage and mixing of food with digestive
juices.
 The stomach of carnivorous and omnivorous vertebrates is typically a U-shaped
muscular tube provided with glands that produce proteolytic enzymes and strong
acid.
Gizzard
 A muscular organ in the digestive system of worms and birds in which the
digestion is assisted by stones and grit swallowed along with food.
Cellulase
 The woody cellulose that encloses plant cells can be broken down only by
this type of enzyme.
 Has limited distribution in the living world.
 No metazoan animals can produce intestinal cellulase for the direct
digestion of cellulose.
 However many herbivorous metazoans harbor microorganisms (bacteria
and protozoa) in their gut that do produce cellulase.
Sphincters of the stomach
1. Cardiac sphincter
 It opens reflexively to allow the food to enter, then closes to prevent
regurgitation back into the esophagus.
2. Pyloric sphincter
 It regulates the flow of food into the intestine and prevents
regurgitation in the stomach.

Secretions of the stomach (Gastric juice)

 Secreted by Deep tubular glands in the stomach wall.
 In humans it is approximately 2 liters each day.
 This include mucin, hydrochloric acid, and enzymes.

Two types of cell in stomach

1. Chief cells
 Cells that secrete pepsin
2. Parietal cells
 Cells that secrete hydrochloric acid.
Pepsin
 It is a protease (proteins-plitting enzyme) that acts only in an acid medium (pH
1.6 to 2.4).
 Pepsin is present in the stomach of nearly all vertebrates.
 Mucin
 It further lubricates the food mass
 A highly viscous organic compound that coats and protects the mucosa from
both chemical and mechanical injury.

Rennin
 It is a milk-curdling enzyme found in the stomach of ruminant mammals.
 It causes the casein in milk to curdle or coagulate.
 The rennin that is extracted from the stomach of calves is used to form the curd
in cheese making.

Chyme
 The mixture of partly digested food particles and secreted fluids that accumulate
in the stomach.

Factors responsible for the protection of gastric epithelium from self digestion
1. A mildly alkaline mucus
2. Low permeability to the uptake of hydrogen ions
3. Tight “leakproof” intercellular junctions and
4. Rapid cellular replacement.
4. Region of Terminal Digestion and Absorption (The intestines)- the region in which the
partly digested food from the stomach is further digested into absorvable
substances.

Small intestine
 A long, slender, and coiled tube
 It is the principal region for digestion and absorption.
 It is about 7.6 m (25 ft) long
 Parts:
 Duodenum
 Jejunum (long central part)
 Ileum

Digestive glands
 Liver and pancreas
 Ther are connected by ducts to the upper part of the small intestine
 Digestion in small intestine
 Chyme will pass through the pyloric sphincter to the duodenum.
 This will stimulate secretion of pancreatic juice and fluid from tubular
glands in the much folded wall of the intestine.
 A bile will be added fro the liver through the bile duct.
 This secretions will fascilitate digestion and will function as protectants or
neutralizers.
Pancreatic enzymes
1. Trypsin, chymotrypsin, and carboxypeptidases
 They break down proteins and polypeptides to amino acids.

2. Amylase
 It breaks down polysaccharides into mixture of glucose and maltose
 This completes the action of salivary amylase
3. Lipase
 It breaks down fats into fatty acids and glycerol

Bicarbonates
1. It is also secreted in pancreatic ducts
2. It neutralizes the hydrochloric acid in the chyme, making the the intestinal
contents mildly alkaline.
3. This prevents ulcerative damage to the intestines and creates an
environment in which the pancreatic enzymes can act.
  Bile
 It is secreted from the liver.
 This greenish yellow liquid contains bile salts that fascilitates digestion by
physically reducing fats to small droplets (emulcification).
 This gives the urine and feces their characteristic yellowish to brownish color.
 Gallbladder
 An expansible storage sac that releases bile when stimulated by the presence of
fatty food in the duodenum.

 Liver is the largest gland of the body

 Other functions of liver aside from secretion of bile includes:
 Stores and provides glucose (glycogen) to the body as needed.
 Serve in protein synthesis and regulates the concentration of amino acids in the
blood.
 Functions in the breakdown and disposal of waste nitrogenous products,
converts ammonia to urea, and helps to dispose the toxic substances
 Forms a substance aiding in the RBC production but also breaks down old RBC.
 Produces heparin which is a blood anticoagulant
 Stores vitamins
 It is also involved in hormone metabolism.

5. Region of Water Absorption and Concentration of Solids

Large intestine (colon)
 It is the portion where water and salt absorption occurs
 Some cellulose are partly digested by bacterias
 Undigested residues are formed into relatively dry masses (feces) for expulsion.
 It serves principally to store and concentrate undigested and indigestable
residues and to dispose of them by way of the rectum and anus.
 It conserves water and takes up small amounts of vitamins synthesize by
intestinal bacteria.
Cloaca
 It is an exit for the excretory wastes and sex cells in sharks, amphibians, reptiles
and birds but enters it by seperate ways.
 It is absent in most mammals.
Rectum, Anus or Vent
 It is where the feces is held and expelled out of the body of animals.

Action of digestive enzymes

 Digestive enzymes are hydrolytic enzymes (hydrolases) so called because food
molecules are split by the process of hydrolysis.
 Hydrolysis is the breaking of a chemical bond dy adding the components of water
accross it.
  Example:
 Proteins must be separated to individual amino acids before it can be
absorbed.
 Carbohydrates must be reduced to simple sugars.
 Fats (lipids) are reduced to glycerol, fatty acids, and monoglycerides.
 There are specific enzymes for each class of organic compounds and
these enzymes are located in the specific regions of the alimentary canal.

Motility in the Alimentary Canal

 Food is moved through the digestive tract by cilia or by specialized
musculature, and often by both.
 In animals with well-developed coeloms, the gut is usually lined with two
opposing layers of smooth muscle:
 Longitudinal layer and
 Circular layer

Longitudinal layer
 The smooth muscle fibers run parallel with the length of the gut

Circular layer
 The muscle fibers embrace the circumference of the gut

Segmentation
 The alternate constriction of rings of smooth muscle of the intestine that
constantly divide and squeeze the contents back and forth.
 It is the most characteristic gut movement.
 It serves to mix food in the gut.

Peristalsis
 It is a series of relaxation and contraction that serve to
force food through the alimentary canal.
 It sweeps the food down the gut with waves of contraction of
circular muscle.
 It serves to move food through the gut.
Control of Digestion
 The muscular and secretory activities of the gastrointestinal tract are influenced
by:

Autonomic nerves
 Chiefly controled by the vagus nerve and symphathetic fibers and internal nerve
plexuses within the walls of the tract itself.
 Hormones secreted by gastrointestinal glands are chiefly automatic involving
reflex responces to physical and chemical characteristics of food.
 The food entering the mouth stimulates salivary secretion by activating taste bud
cells from which impulses pass along sensory nerves to a salivary center in the
medulla.
 Simultaneously gastric juices is secreted in the stomach.
 The digestive process is coordinated by a family of hormones produced by the
body’s most diffuse endocrine tissue in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.

Among the principal GI hormones are

1. Gastrin
2. Cholecystokinin (CCK)
3. Secretin

Gastrin
 It is a small polypeptide hormone produced by endocrine cells in the
pyloric portion of the stomach.
 It is secreted in response to stimulation by the parasympathetic nerve
endings, and when protein food enters the stomach.
 Its main actions are to stimulate hydrochloric acid secretion and to
increase gastric motility.

Cholecystokinin (CCK)/ pancreozymin

 CCK is secreted by endocrine cells in the walls of the upper small
intestine in response to the presence of fatty acids and amino acids in the
duodenum.
 It has 3 main functions:
 It stimulates gallbladder contraction and thus increases the flow of bile
salts into the intestine.
 It stimulates an enzyme-rich secretion from the pancreas; and
 It acts on the brain to contribute a feeling of satiety after a meal,
particularly one rich in fats.
 Secretin
 It is the first hormone to be discovered
 It is produced by endocrine cells in the duodenal wall.
 It is secreted in response to food and strong acid in the stomach and
small intestine.
 Its principal action is to stimulate the release of an alkaline pancreatic
fluid that neutralizes stomach acid as it enters the intestine.
 It also aids fat digestion by inhibiting gastric motility and increasing
production of an alkaline bile secretion from the liver.

Absorption
 The small intestine is the principal area for absorption.
 It is defined as the selective taking up of fluids or other substances by cells or tissues.
 This process fulfills the purpose of digestion.
 Through the intestinal wall the chemical substances derived from food enters the blood
stream and are distributed to the body to be built into living tissues or used for energy.
 The absorbing surface has a mobile projetions (villi), which bears smaller projections
(micovilli).
 Each villus contains blood capillaries and a central lacteal vessel.
 The end product of protein and carbohydrates (animo acid and simple sugars) are
actively transported through cells of the intestinal mucosa and released into blood
capillaries connecting to the hepatic portal vein and they will be carried to the liver.
 The end product of fat digestion enters the lacteals which connects to the lymphatic
system. These lymphatic vessels from the intestine joins the thoracic duct that enters the
venous system close to the heart.

Assimilation
 It is the incorporation of digested nutriments after absortion into living protoplasm.

Metabolism
 The sum of constructive and destructive processes (anabolism and catabolism), physical
and chemical that occurs in living organisms.
 As the absorbed nutrients is assimilated they are:
 Broken down chemically to supply energy (catabolism) and stored as ATP until energy is
needed by the cells.
 Stored as glycogen or as depot fat.
 build into new cellular structures (anabolism).
Nutritional Requirements
 The food of animals must include carbohydrates, proteins, fats, water, mineral salts,
and vitamins.

Carbohydrates and fats are required as fuels for energy and for the synthesis of
various substances and structures.
Proteins (actually the amino acids of which they are composed) are needed for the
synthesis of specific proteins and other nitrogen-containing compounds.
Water is required as the solvent for body chemistry and as a major component of all
fluids of the body.
Inorganic salts are required as the anions and cations of body fluids and tissues and
form important structural and physiological components throughout the body.
Vitamins are accessory factors from food that are often built into the structure of many
enzymes. It is either water soluble vitamins or lipid soluble vitamins.