Class 11 Biology- Role of Liver in the Digestion
Role of Liver in the Digestion
The main functions of the liver as an accessory digestive organ within the human digestive system are:
The main functions of the liver as an accessory digestive organ within the human digestive system are:
The secretion of bile and bile salts: In addition to pancreatic and intestinal secretions, a third secretion that is poured into the duodenum is the bile. Bile or gall is a dark green to yellowish brown fluid and alkaline in nature, produced by the liver and aids the digestion of lipids in the small intestine. In humans, bile is produced continuously by the liver (liver bile) and stored and concentrated in the gallbladder (gallbladder bile). The composition of gallbladder bile is 97% water, and rest is made up of bile salts(the sodium salts secreted in bile, sodium taurocholate and sodium glycocholate, which greatly lower surface tension and are important in emulsifying fats), bile pigments (the complex, highly coloured waste products of the hemoglobin of old red blood cells, found in the bile, bilirubin , biliverdin, their derivatives; urobilinogen, urobilin, bilicyanin, and bilifuscin), and stercobilin). Other constituents are cholesterol, fatty acids and lecithin, and inorganic salts.
Bile acts to some extent as a surfactant(any substance that tends to reduce the surface tension of a liquid in which it is dissolved) and helps to emulsify the lipids in food. Bile salt anions are hydrophilic on one side and hydrophobic on the other side; hence they tend to aggregate around droplets of lipids (triglycerides and phospholipids) to form micelles, with the hydrophobic sides towards the fat and hydrophilic sides facing outwards. The hydrophilic sides are negatively charged, and this charge prevents fat droplets coated with bile from re-aggregating into larger fat particles.
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