7.

2- Alimentary Canal &

7.5- Absorption
Learning Outcomes
To be able to
• Identify the main regions of the alimentary canal and associated organs.
• Define ingestion, digestion( chemical and Mechanical), absorption, assimilation and egestion
• Describe Diarrhoea and Cholera and their treatments.
• Describe the functions of the alimentary canal’s various parts.
 The 5 Stages of Digestion
Fill in the manual next slide
1. Ingestion – taking food into the body (mouth)
2. Digestion – Breaking up of food into small molecules
by physical means (chewing in mouth & churning in
stomach) and chemical means (enzymes)
3. Absorption – Digested food is absorbed into the
blood in the small intestine
4. Assimilation – the use of digested and absorbed food
materials to make new cells/body parts
5. Egestion – the removal of indigestible & undigested
food (faeces) from the body (anus).
How is this different from excretion?
 * Complete Manual- Page 12
Term Definition Related organs
Ingestion    

Mechanical digestion    

Chemical digestion    

Absorption    
 

Assimilation    

egestion    
Human Alimentary Canal (Digestive System)
• The alimentary canal is 7-9 m long. It is coiled around so that it can fit
into the abdomen.
• Digestion starts in the mouth with physical digestion (chewing) and
chemical addition of saliva (enzymes)
• Food is swallowed in a bolus and is pushed down the oesophagus
towards the stomach by peristalsis – the involuntary contraction of
smooth muscles in the digestive tract.
Parts of Alimentary Canal
 Label each part of the alimentary canal
*Complete Manual- Page 14
 *Complete- Manual(Page 13)- Before completing the table please consider next 3 slide
Part of alimentary Location (show on Structure function Mechanical or chemical Enzymes present? Function of
canal diagram) digestion enzmyes?

Mouth          

Oesophagus          
 

Stomach          

Small Intestine          

Large intestine          

Anus          

Pancreas          

Liver          

Gall bladder          
A. Structure
• How would you describe its shape?
• What parts is it made up of?
• What is specialised about its structure that makes it able to carry out
its function?
• What chemicals are found there?
B. Function
• Is the part of the alimentary canal involved with ingestion, digestion,
absorption, assimilation or egestion? Combination of these?
• What does it do? How does it do it?
C. Enzymes and the Alimentary Canal
• Anabolic/Catabolic?
• Name of substrates and products
• Name of enzyme(s)
• Name of polymers and monomers involved
 Diarrhoea and oral rehydration therapy
Egestion is the passing out of food that has not been digested or absorbed, as
faeces, through the anus.
• Diarrhoea is the abnormal loss of watery faeces.
Symptoms
 An urgent feeling that you need to have a bowel movement
 Thin or watery stool. Nausea and vomiting. Bloating in your belly. Cramps.
 More serious symptoms include:
 Blood, mucus, or undigested food in the stool
 Weight loss
 Fever
 Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) Optional
Question-
• Is a type of fluid replacement used to prevent or treat Write down
dehydration especially that is due to diarrhoea. It involves some brief
drinking water with modest amounts of sugar and salt notes about
added (ORS) while continuing to eat. Some supplements are what this
therapy is?
added.
using the
• Caretakers are taught the signs of dehydration and/or internet and any
worsening dehydration. resources
available to you.
 Cholera
• The disease cholera is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It’s most
characteristic symptom is watery diarrhoea that leads to dehydration and
electrolyte imbalance – because the person loses so much water and salts
from their cells.
• Spread mostly by water and food that has been contaminated with human
faeces containing the bacteria.
 How cholera works
• Cholera is a disease caused by a bacterium that produces a toxin that causes secretion of
chloride ions into the small intestine, causing osmotic movement of water into the gut,
causing diarrhoea, dehydration and loss of salts from blood.
1. Vibrio cholerae swims past the stomach and into the thick mucus of the small intestine. They
start producing the toxic proteins that give the infected person a watery diarrhea. This carries
the multiplying new generations of bacteria out into the drinking water of the next host if
proper sanitation measures are not in place. This toxin is taken into the cell by endocytosis.
2. Vibrio cholerae causes changes to the chloride pumps on cells, the intestine now has a high
concentration of Cl- ions.
3. The chloride ions are negative and prevent sodium ions (Na+) from being pumped into the
cells.
4. The Na+ and the Cl- in the lumen of the small intestine decreases the water potential.
5. This causes water to be drawn out of cells by osmosis.
6. Water is now in the lumen along with salts and glucose.
 Treatment of Cholera
1.Oral or
2. Intravenous hydration are the main method - cholera treatment.
3. Treatment with antibiotics is recommended for severely ill patients. It is
particularly recommended for patients who are severely or moderately dehydrated
and continue to pass a large volume of stool during rehydration treatment.
Antibiotic treatment is also recommended for all patients who are hospitalized, eg
Doxycycline.
* Complete- Manual- Page 16
Underneath is the steps of how Vibrio cholerae causes such symptoms – but it is jumbled. Put
them back in order by labelling them and then rewriting them in the space below:

The Na+ and the Cl- in Vibrio cholerae causes

Water is now in the This causes water to
the lumen of the small changes to the chloride
lumen along with be drawn out of cells
intestine decreases the pumps on cells, the
salts and glucose by osmosis
water potential. intestine now has a high
concentration of Cl- ions The chloride ions are
Vibrio cholerae swims negative and prevent
past the stomach and sodium ions (Na+) from
into the thick mucus of being pumped into the cells.
the small intestine.
Your microbiome Scishow
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybk7E7SLbWw&feature=em-sub
s_digest
7.5- Absorption (Small intestine)
• Know where absorption of food and water happens in the body.
• Describe how the structure of the villus helps with absorption of food.
• Explain the structure if rge villi and microvilli in increasing the internal
surface of Small intestine
• Describe the role of the hepatic portal vein in absorption
 The Small Intestine
• 7 m long tube composed of the duodenum and ileum
• 3 important liquids are added to food here:
1. Pancreatic Juice – contains carbohydrases, proteases and lipases
to digest the food
2. Bile – enters through the bile duct. Bile is made in the liver and
stored in the gallbladder. Bile does not contain enzymes. Bile acts
on fats and emulsifies them – making them into smaller globules
to increase the surface area available for lipases to act on. Fat
molecules stay the same size. It is also alkaline to neutralise the
stomach acid & give the best pH for intestinal enzymes to work in.
The Small Intestine
3. Intestinal juice – made by the glands in the wall of the
small intestine, containing carbohydrases, proteases –
Trypsin and lipases to complete the digestion of food

carbohydrases
Starch sugars
proteases
Proteins amino acids
Fats lipases fatty acids & glycerol
 Absorption in the Small Intestine
• The ileum of the small intestine is the site of absorption –
digested food passes through the intestinal wall into the blood.
• The small intestine is well designed for efficient absorption:
• A thin lining covered in millions of villi
• The villi are covered with microvilli
• A good blood supply
• A very large surface area
 Villi
• The lining of the small intestine is made up of closely packed finger-like projections
called villi
• These increases the surface area for absorption
• The individual villi cells each have microvilli which increase the absorption surface
even more.

Small intestine
Microvilli
 Maximising The Surface Area
The result of this folding means that the surface area of the lining of
the small intestine is enormous!

Direction of Food

Epithelium
of small
intestine
This increases the number of places where small soluble food
molecules can pass across and move into the blood.
 Where Is The Blood?
The blood is found in minute small vessels known as capillaries. The
capillaries are found protruding into the villi.

The blood approaches the villus, picks up the absorbed food

molecules and then leaves.
 Digestive products in the blood
Remember that the small intestine lining is made up of thousands
of villi.
Here is a summary of the process of absorption.
A
 
B
 
S
sugars  

O
 
B
amino acids
R
  L
P
  O
fatty acids T

and glycerol
  O
phosphates I
 
D
O
Any indigestible food will leave the small  
N
intestine without having been absorbed.  
Absorption in the Small Intestine
• Water in absorbed in both the small intestine and the colon, but most
water absorption occurs in the small intestine.
Villi of the Small Intestine
The lymph vessels empty into the lymphatic ducts, which drain into one
of the two subclavian veins, near their junction with the internal jugular veins.
Villus wall is only one cell thick
• Amino acids & sugar molecules are absorbed
through the thin villus wall into the blood capillary
• Fatty acids & glycerol are absorbed into the lacteal
• Blood coming to villus to pick up food molecules
• Blood takes food molecules away to rest of body
• Lymph coming to villus
• Lymph fluid carries fatty acids & glycerol away to
rest of the body
Complete- Manual- Page 15

• Using the diagram above describe the structure of the intestinal wall and
what features of it increase surface area for absorption of glucose and
other nutrients and minerals.
• Why is the villus wall only one cell thick?
• Why are there blood vessels all the way up the villi?
• What is the function of the lacteals?
• Glucose diffuses across the villus wall through glucose channels, however
to obtain glucose just by diffusion is insufficient – explain why and state
what other processes occur to absorb as much glucose as possible through
to the blood.
 The large Intestine
• From the ileum, the “food” that’s passed to the large intestine is mainly
fibre, dead cells, bacteria and water.
• As it passes along, water is absorbed into the blood. (most water
absorbed in small intestine)
• Colon secretes no enzymes but bacteria in it digest fibre to form fatty
acids that are absorbed. Bile salts also absorbed & returned to liver by
blood.
• The solid waste, faeces, is stored in the rectum and eventually is egested
through the anus.
• Food takes approx. 24-28hours the pass along the length of the
digestive system.