Digestive System Flow Chart

Digestive System Flow Chart

Liver (Continued)

The liver stores iron, certain vitamins, and sugar in the form of glycogen that is converted to glucose and released into the bloodstream when additional blood sugar is needed. It produces heparin (a substance that prevents clotting of the blood), blood proteins such as fibrinogen and prothrombin (aids in clotting the blood), cholesterol, and detoxifies harmful substances and destroys bacteria from the blood from the intestine.

Pancreatic Juice

Bile

The liquid that enters the small intestine from the liver and gallbladder that emulsifies or physically breaks down fats.

Liquid that enters the small intestine from the pancreas. It contains enzymes, such as pancreatic amylase (acts on sugar), trypsin and chymotrypsin (acts on proteins) and lipase (acts on fats), that complete the process of digestion

Liver

The largest gland in the body that is located under the diaphragm in the upper right quadrant of the abdomen.

The Liver secretes bile that is used to emulsify or physically break up fats by making them water soluble, which is necessary in absorption.

Pancreas

Gallbladder

Teeth

A fish shaped organ located behind the stomach that produces pancreatic juices. It produces insulin that is secreted into the bloodstream to regulate the metabolism or burning of carbohydrates to convert glucose into energy.

The small muscular sac located under the liver and attached to it by connective tissue. It stores and concentrates bile which it recieves from the liver. When the bile is needed in the digestive tract to emulsify fat, it contracts and pushes the bile through the common bile duct into the duodenum.

Physically breaks down food in a process called mastication.

Salivary Gland

Duodenum

The first nine to ten inches of the small intestine. Bile from the gallbladder and liver and pancreatic juice from the pancreas enter this section through ducts or tubes.

Villi

Finger-like projections that line the wall of the small intestine that allow food to be absorbed or taken into the bloodstream. It contains blood capillaries and lacteals. Blood capillaries absorb or pick up the digested nutrients and carry them to the liver where they are stored or released into general circulation for use by body cells.

Tongue

Muscular organ with taste buds. It aids in chewing and swallowing by pushing the food toward the teeth.

Ileum

Produces liquid (saliva) to make swallowing easier. Has enzymes called Amylase that begin the chemical breakdown of carbohydrates into sugars.

Food that is chewed and mixed with saliva is called a bolus.

Mouth (Oral Cavity)

The final twelve feet of the small intestine that connects with the large intestine at the cecum.

Small Intestine

Intestinal Juices

Hard Palate

Produced by the small intestine, it contains the enzyems maltase, sucrose, and lactase which break down sugars into simple forms. It also contains the enzyme known as peptidases which completes the digestion of protein.

Bony structure that forms the roof of the mouth. Separates the mouth from the nasal cavity.

Where the food begins to break down both physically and chemically.

Contains the teeth, tongue, hard palate, soft palate, uvula, and salivary gland.

Anal Sphincter

Ileocecal Sphincter

Coiled section of the alimentary canal anout twenty feet long and one inch in diameter. It receives food in the form of chyme from the stomach.

When food has completed its passage through the small intestine, ONLY wastes, indigestible materials and excess water remain

The last sphincter that leads from the anal canal of the rectum.

Separates the ileum and the cecum. Prevents the chyme from returning to the ileum.

Rectum

The final six to eight inches of the large intestine. It is the storage area for indigestible material or wastes. Fecal material or stool, the final waste product of the digestive process, is expelled through the anus.

Large Intestine (Continued)

Soft Palate

The large intestine forms and absorbs some B-complex vitamins and vitamin K by bacteria present in the intestine.

It contains the cecum, appendix, colon, and rectum.

Located behind the hard palate. Separates the mouth from the nasopharynx.

Esophagus

Uvula

Small Intestine (Continued)

Cone shaped muscular structure hanging from the soft palate that prevents food from entering the nasopharynx while swallowing.

Functions include: completing the digestion process, and absorbing the products of digestion into the bloodstream for use by body cells.

There are three sections of the small intestine: duodenum, jejunum, and ileum.

Large Intestine

Pharynx

Jejunum

About eight feet long. Forms the middle section of the small intestine.

The muscular tube behind the trachea that carries the bolus to the stomach by rhythmic, wavelike, involuntary movement of its muscles, called peristalsis.

A tube, about 5 inches long, that carries air to the trachea (windpipe) and food to the esophagus.

When swallowing, otherwise known as deglutition, a muscle causes the epiglottis to close over the larynx to prevent the bolus from entering the respiratory tract.

The final section of the alimentary canal that is about five feet long and about two inches in diameter.

The large intestine absorbs water and any remaining nutrients and stores indigestible materials before they are eliminated from the body.

Descending Colon

Ascending Colon

The part of the large intestine that extends down on the left side of the body.

The part of the large intestine that continues up on the right side of the body from the cecum to the lower part of the liver.

Cardiac Sphincter

Pyloric Sphincter

Lipase

Circular muscle between the stomach and esophagus. It closes after food enters the stomach and prevents food from going back into the esophagus.

Begins chemical break down of fats

Circular muscle opening between the stomach and small intestine. It keeps food in the stomach until it's ready to enter the small intestine (usually for about one to four hours).

Stomach

Sigmoid Colon

Rennin

Cecum

Aids in milk digestion in infants only

The part of the large intestine that connects with the descending colon. It is an "S" shaped section that joins with the rectum.

Gastric Juices

The first section of the large intestine that connects with the ileum of the small intestine. Contains a small projection called the vermiform appendix.

The enlarged portion of the alimentary canal that receives food from the esophagus. Its mucous membrane lining contains folds called rugae which disappears as the stomach expands and fills with food.

Transverse Colon

Produced by glands in the stomach. The juices convert foods into semi-fluid material called chyme.

Juices contain hydrochloric acid that kill bacteria, help in the absorption of iron, and activates the enzyme pepsin.

Some examples of juices are lipase, pepsin, and rennin.

The part of the large intestine that extends across the abdomen, below the liver and stomach, but above the small intestine.

Pepsin

Starts protein digestion