Digestive System Vocab

• Carbohydrates – Any of a large class of organic compounds consisting of carbon, hydrogen,

and oxygen, usually with twice as many hydrogen atoms as carbon or oxygen atoms.
Carbohydrates are produced in green plants by photosynthesis and serve as a major energy
source in animal diets. Sugars, starches, and cellulose are all carbohydrates
• Catalysts – A substance that starts or speeds up a chemical reaction while undergoing no
permanent change itself. The enzymes in saliva, for example, are catalysts in digestion.
• Cellulose – A carbohydrate that is a polymer composed of glucose units and that is the main
component of the cell walls of most plants. It is insoluble in water and is used to make paper,
cellophane, textiles, explosives, and other products.
• Denature – To cause the paired strands of DNA to separate into individual strands.
• Digestive System – The alimentary canal together with the salivary glands, liver, pancreas,
and other organs of digestion.
• Disaccharides – Any of a class of sugars, including lactose and sucrose, that are composed of
two monosaccharides.
• Enzyme – any of various proteins, as pepsin, originating from living cells and capable of
producing certain chemical changes in organic substances by catalytic action, as in digestion.
• Esophagus – The muscular membranous tube for the passage of food from the pharynx to the
stomach; the gullet.
• Fats –Any of a large number of oily compounds that are widely found in plant and animal
tissues and serve mainly as a reserve source of energy.
• Glucose – a sugar, C6H12O6, having several optically different forms, the common
dextrorotatory form (dextroglucose, or d-glucose) occurring in many fruits, animal tissues
and fluids, etc.
• Glycogen – A polysaccharide stored in animal liver and muscle cells that is easily converted
to glucose to meet metabolic energy requirements. Most of the carbohydrate energy stored in
animal cells is in the form of glycogen.
• Homeostasis – The tendency of an organism or cell to regulate its internal conditions, such as
the chemical composition of its body fluids, so as to maintain health and functioning,
regardless of outside conditions.
• Large Intestine – The muscular tube that forms the part of the digestive tract extending from
the stomach to the anus and consisting of the small and large intestines. In the intestine,
nutrients and water from digested food are absorbed and waste products are solidified into
feces.
• Liver – A large glandular organ in the abdomen of vertebrate animals that is essential to
many metabolic processes. The liver secretes bile, stores fat and sugar as reserve energy
sources, converts harmful substances to less toxic forms, and regulates the amount of blood
in the body.
• Lipid – Any of a large group of organic compounds that are oily to the touch and insoluble in
water. Lipids include fatty acids, oils, waxes, sterols, and triglycerides. They are a source of
stored energy and are a component of cell membranes.
• Macromolecules – a very large molecule, as a colloidal particle, protein, or esp. a polymer,
composed of hundreds or thousands of atoms.
• Metabolism –the sum of the physical and chemical processes in an organism by which its
 material substance is produced, maintained, and destroyed, and by which energy is made
available.
• Monosaccharides – carbohydrate that does not hydrolyze, as glucose, fructose, or ribose,
occurring naturally or obtained by the hydrolysis of glycosides or polysaccharides.
• Mouth – the opening through which an animal or human takes in food.
• Nucleic Acid – any of a group of long, linear macromolecules, either DNA or various types
of RNA, that carry genetic information directing all cellular functions: composed of linked
nucleotides.
• Nutrients –A substance that provides nourishment for growth or metabolism.
• Organ – A distinct part of an organism that performs one or more specialized functions.
Examples of organs are the eyes, ears, lungs, and heart of an animal, and the roots, stems,
and leaves of a plant.
• Organic Compound – any compound of carbon and another element or a radical
• Peptide Bond –a covalent bond formed by joining the carboxyl group of one amino acid to
the amino group of another, with the removal of a molecule of water. The chemical bond
formed between amino acids, constituting the primary linkage in all protein structures.
• PH – A numerical measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution, usually measured on a
scale of 0 to 14.
• Pharynx – The passage that leads from the cavities of the nose and mouth to the larynx (voice
box) and esophagus. Air passes through the pharynx on the way to the lungs, and food enters
the esophagus from the pharynx.
• Polysaccharides – Any of a class of carbohydrates that are made of long chains of simple
carbohydrates (called monosaccharides). Starch and cellulose are polysaccharides.
• Proteins – Any of a large class of complex organic chemical compounds that are essential for
life. Proteins play a central role in biological processes and form the basis of living tissues.
They consist of long chains of amino acids connected by peptide bonds and have distinct and
varied three-dimensional structures.
• Rectum – The last section of the digestive tract, extending from the colon to the anus, in
which feces is stored for elimination from the body.
• Saturated Fats – a type of single-bond animal or vegetable fat, as that found in butter, meat,
egg yolks, and coconut or palm oil, that in humans tends to increase cholesterol levels in the
blood.
• Small Intestine – The long, narrow, coiled section of the intestine that extends from the
stomach to the beginning of the large intestine. Nutrients from food are absorbed into the
bloodstream from the small intestine. In mammals, it is made up of the duodenum, jejunum,
and ileum.
• Stomach – A saclike muscular organ in vertebrate animals that stores and breaks down
ingested food. Food enters the stomach from the esophagus and passes to the small intestine
through the pylorus. Glands in the stomach secrete hydrochloric acid and the digestive
enzyme pepsin.
• Unsaturated Fats – A fat derived from plant and some animal sources, especially fish, that is
liquid at room temperature. Intake of foods containing more unsaturated fats than saturated
fats may contribute to reduced blood cholesterol levels.