The Digestive System

Front 1

What do your mouth and teeth do?

Back 1

Aid in the mechanical digestion, breaking down the food to maximise the surface area for enzymes to reach and break it down further.

Front 2

What do your salivary glands do?

Back 2

The salivary glands excrete saliva which contains amylase, a salivary enzyme which breaks down starch into glucose.

Front 3

What does your esophagus do?

Back 3

You esophagus transports food to your stomach.

Front 4

What does your stomach do?

Back 4

Your stomach secretes enzymes and acids such as pepsinogen and hydrochloric acid (HCI) that when combined create the protein digesting enzyme pepsin, a protease. Apart from this, your stomach primarily uses mechanical digestion to break down food, mixing it and churning it for enzymes to then break down further.

Front 5

What does your small intestine do?

Back 5

Duodenum (Start of small intestine):

Receives chyme and gastric juices from the stomach and imports bile from the liver and gall bladder as well as enzymes form the pancreas.

Your small intestine is where most nutrients and minerals are absorbed. The small intestine consists of primarily chemical digestion.

Front 6

What do your liver and gall bladder do?

Back 6

The main role of the liver is to make bile, which is used to break down fats. But while your liver creates bile it gets stored and concentrated in your gall bladder which contracts and transports it to your small intestine.

Front 7

What is bile and what does it do?

Back 7

Fats aren't water soluble and will therefore clump together (as our insides are mostly water) becoming hard to digest. Bile is an emulsifier which prevents fat molecules from sticking together, so enzymes can break them down into into fatty acids and monoglycerides that your body can digest and absorb.

Front 8

What does your pancreas do?

Back 8

Your pancreas produces enzymes important to digestion such as trypsin and chymotrypsin which help break down proteins (amino acids). Pancreatic lipase turns triglycerides into fatty acids and glycerol and amylase also reduces carbohydrates into glucose and fructose. Once the molecules are disassembled into their monomers your small intestine can absorb and transport them through your capillaries and into to blood cells.

Front 9

What does your large intestine do?

Back 9

Your large intestine does not produce and digestive enzymes, and instead absorbs remaining water and important vitamins and stores 'waste' until it is ready to exit the body through the rectum then anus.