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Mechanical and Chemical Digestion

Digestion is the catabolic process of breaking down food into absorbable molecules, occurring through mechanical and chemical digestion from the mouth to the small intestine. Mechanical digestion physically reduces food size, while chemical digestion involves enzymes that convert macromolecules like carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids into smaller absorbable units. Digestive enzymes, secreted by various glands, play a crucial role in facilitating these biochemical reactions throughout the digestive tract.

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19 views5 pages

Mechanical and Chemical Digestion

Digestion is the catabolic process of breaking down food into absorbable molecules, occurring through mechanical and chemical digestion from the mouth to the small intestine. Mechanical digestion physically reduces food size, while chemical digestion involves enzymes that convert macromolecules like carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids into smaller absorbable units. Digestive enzymes, secreted by various glands, play a crucial role in facilitating these biochemical reactions throughout the digestive tract.

Uploaded by

Swati Sharma
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Digestion

Digestion of food is a form of catabolism, in which the food is broken down into
small molecules that the body can absorb and use for energy, growth, and repair.
Digestion occurs when food is moved through the digestive system. It begins in
the mouth and ends in the small intestine. The final products of digestion are
absorbed from the digestive tract, primarily in the small intestine. There are two
different types of digestion that occur in the digestive system: mechanical
digestion and chemical digestion.
Mechanical Digestion
Mechanical digestion is a physical process in which food is broken into smaller
pieces without becoming changed chemically. It begins with your first bite of
food and continues as you chew food with your teeth into smaller pieces. The
process of mechanical digestion continues in the stomach. This muscular organ
churns and mixes the food it contains, an action that breaks any solid food into
still smaller pieces.
Although some mechanical digestion also occurs in the intestines, it is mostly
completed by the time food leaves the stomach. At that stage, food in the GI tract
has been changed to the thick semi-fluid called chyme. Mechanical digestion is
necessary so that chemical digestion can be effective. Mechanical digestion
tremendously increases the surface area of food particles so they can be acted
upon more effectively by digestive enzymes.
Chemical Digestion
Chemical digestion is the biochemical process in which macromolecules in food
are changed into smaller molecules that can be absorbed into body fluids and
transported to cells throughout the body. Substances in food that must be
chemically digested include carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids.
Carbohydrates must be broken down into simple sugars, proteins into amino
acids, lipids into fatty acids and glycerol, and nucleic acids into nitrogen bases
and sugars. Some chemical digestion takes place in the mouth and stomach, but
most of it occurs in the first part of the small intestine (duodenum).
Digestive Enzymes
Chemical digestion could not occur without the help of many different digestive
enzymes. Enzymes are proteins that catalyze or speed up biochemical reactions.
Digestive enzymes are secreted by exocrine glands or by the mucosal layer of the
epithelium lining the gastrointestinal tract. In the mouth, digestive enzymes are
secreted by salivary glands. The lining of the stomach secretes enzymes, as does
the lining of the small intestine. Many more digestive enzymes are secreted by
exocrine cells in the pancreas and carried by ducts to the small intestine.

Chemical Digestion of Carbohydrates


About 80 percent of digestible carbohydrates in a typical Western diet are in the
form of the plant polysaccharide amylose, which consists mainly of long chains
of glucose and is one of two major components of starch. Additional dietary
carbohydrates include the animal polysaccharide glycogen, along with some
sugars, which are mainly disaccharides.
To chemically digest amylose and glycogen, the enzyme amylase is required. The
chemical digestion of these begins in the mouth, aided by amylase in saliva.
Saliva also contains mucus, which lubricates the food, and hydrogen carbonate,
which provides the ideal alkaline conditions for amylase to work. Carbohydrate
digestion is completed in the small intestine, with the help of amylase secreted by
the pancreas. In the digestive process, polysaccharides are reduced in length by
the breaking of bonds between glucose monomers. The macromolecules are
broken down to shorter polysaccharides and disaccharides, resulting in
progressively shorter chains of glucose. The end result is molecules of the simple
sugars glucose and maltose (which consists of two glucose molecules), both of
which can be absorbed by the small intestine.
Other sugars are digested with the help of different enzymes produced by the
small intestine. For example, sucrose, or table sugar, is a disaccharide that is
broken down by the enzyme sucrase to form glucose and fructose, which are
readily absorbed by the small intestine. Digestion of the sugar lactose, which is
found in milk, requires the enzyme lactase, which breaks down lactose into
glucose and galactose, which are then absorbed by the small intestine. Fewer than
half of all adults produce sufficient lactase to be able to digest lactose. Those who
cannot are said to be lactose intolerant.

Chemical Digestion of Proteins


Proteins consist of polypeptides, which must be broken down into their
constituent amino acids before they can be absorbed. Protein digestion occurs in
the stomach and small intestine through the action of three primary enzymes:
pepsin, secreted by the stomach; and trypsin and chymotrypsin secreted by the
pancreas. The stomach also secretes hydrochloric acid, making the contents
highly acidic, which is required for pepsin to work. Trypsin and chymotrypsin in
the small intestine require an alkaline environment to work. Bile from the liver
and bicarbonate from the pancreas neutralize the acidic chyme as it empties into
the small intestine. After pepsin, trypsin, and chymotrypsin break down proteins
into peptides, these are further broken down into amino acids by other enzymes
called peptidases, also secreted by the pancreas.

Chemical Digestion of Lipids


The chemical digestion of lipids begins in the mouth. The salivary glands secrete
the digestive enzyme lipase, which breaks down short-chain lipids into molecules
consisting of two fatty acids. A tiny amount of lipid digestion may take place in
the stomach, but most lipid digestion occurs in the small intestine.
Digestion of lipids in the small intestine occurs with the help of another lipase
enzyme from the pancreas as well as bile secreted by the liver. Bile is required
for the digestion of lipids because lipids are oily and do not dissolve in the watery
chyme. Bile emulsifies, or breaks up, large globules of food lipids into much
smaller ones, called micelles, much as dish detergent breaks up grease. The
micelles provide a great deal more surface area to be acted upon by lipase and
also point the hydrophilic (“water-loving”) heads of the fatty acids outward into
the watery chyme. Lipase can then access and break down the micelles into
individual fatty acid molecules.
Chemical Digestion of Nucleic Acids
Nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) in foods are digested in the small intestine with
the help of both pancreatic enzymes and enzymes produced by the small intestine
itself. Pancreatic enzymes called ribonuclease and deoxyribonuclease break
down RNA and DNA, respectively, into smaller nucleic acids. These, in turn, are
further broken down into nitrogen bases and sugars by small intestine enzymes
called nucleases.

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