Class-10 Chapter- 7: Life Processes

CHAPTER- 5
Life processes
(III) Holozoic nutrition
 This is a kind of nutritional methods that takes place in five steps- ingestion, digestion,
absorption, assimilation, and egestion.
 Ingestion- process of taking in food either as part of plant, animals or whole organism.
 Digestion- process in which complex food substances are broken down and converted into
simpler forms with the help of digestive enzymes.
 Absorption- The digested food is absorbed by the body cells.
 Assimilation- The process in which absorbed food is used for the release of energy and for
growth and repair.
 Egestion- The process of removing undigested food out of the body.
 In single-celled organisms, the food is taken in by the entire surface.
 Example:
(i) Amoeba
 Amoeba is a unicellular animal living in water.
 It takes in food by forming finger like projections called pseudopodia and forms a food
vacuole.
 The f complex food substances are digested inside the food vacuole and then absorbed
into the cytoplasm.
 Finally, the undigested food is discarded/ thrown (egested) out through the cell surface.
 Amoeba senses food.
1) Food is enclosed inside the food
vacuole by extension of pseudopodia.
2) Enzymes are secreted from the
cytoplasm into the vacuole and 1 2
digestion is done.
3) Digested food materials are absorbed.
4) Absorbed food is used in cell.
5) Undigested food (waste) is discarded.

5 4 3

Fig: Different Stages in the nutrition of Amoeba

(ii) Paramoecium
 Paramoecium is a unicellular organism (figure below).

 The cells have a definite shape and possess cilia all over its cell surface.
 Food is taken in at a specific spot (oral groove) by the movement of cilia which cover the
entire surface of the cell.
 The food passes from oral groove (mouth) into the narrower part called gullet (buccal
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cavity) to form food vacuole.

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GAURAV B. PRASAD (M.Sc., DMLT, B.Ed.) Mobile: 9924353771

Class-10 Chapter- 7: Life Processes
 In multicellular organism different parts of the body is specialised to perform different
functions.

Nutrition in Human Beings

 Human being is a complex organism, having complex digestive system. The digestive system of
human being is composed of alimentary canal and accessory digestive glands.
Digestive system

Alimentary canal Accessory digestive glands

Mouth & Oesophagus Small Intestine Anus

Buccal cavity Salivary gland Liver
Stomach Large Intestine Pancreas
Alimentary Canal:
 The alimentary canal is basically a long tube having different parts extending from the mouth to the
anus.
 Various regions/ organs are
specialised to perform
different functions.
 The main organs of the
digestive system are:

mouth
↓
oesophagus
↓
stomach
↓
small intestine
↓
large intestine
↓
anus

Mouth & Buccal cavity-

 The mouth leads into the buccal cavity that performs two major functions-
o Chewing of food.
o Facilitation of swallowing.
 It has a number of teeth and a muscular tongue.
Buccal cavity

Teeth Tongue
(1) Teeth:
 There are two sets of teeth formed during the life-
 Temporary milk teeth – these are 20 in number that are replaced by permanent
teeth.
 Permanent or adult teeth - these are 32 (20 + 12) in number.
 The permanent teeth are of four different types:
 Incisors (I), canine (C), premolars (PM) and molars (M).
 The teeth help in cutting, grinding and chewing the food.
(2) Tongue:
 It is a freely movable muscular organ. The upper surface of the tongue has small
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projections, some of which bear taste buds.

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GAURAV B. PRASAD (M.Sc., DMLT, B.Ed.) Mobile: 9924353771

Class-10 Chapter- 7: Life Processes
 The tongue helps in mixing and wetting the food with saliva and also helps to taste the
food.
 Oesophagus-
 The oesophagus is a thin, long tube which extends posteriorly passing through the neck,
thorax and diaphragm and leads to a ‘J’ shaped bag like structure called stomach.
 A muscular sphincter (gastro-oesophageal sphincter) regulates the opening of oesophagus
into the stomach.
 Stomach-
 The stomach is located in the upper left portion of the abdominal cavity.
 It opens into the first part of small intestine (i.e., duodenum).
 The opening of the stomach into the duodenum is guarded by a sphincter (pyloric sphincter).
 Small intestine-
 It is distinguishable into three regions:
 Duodenum- it is ‘C’ shaped (‘U’ shaped) and receives the digestive enzymes from
pancreas and liver for digestion.
 Jejunum- it is the middle portion which is long and coiled.
 Ileum- it is highly coiled and opens into initial part of large intestine (i.e., caecum)
through a valve (ileo-colic valve).
 Large intestine-
 It consists of three regions- caecum, colon and rectum.
 Caecum- it is a small blind sac to which ileum (part of small intestine) joins.
o From caecum arises a narrow finger-like, tubular vestigial organ- vermiform
appendix.
o Caecum hosts some symbiotic micro-organisms and opens into the colon.
 Colon- it is divided into an ascending, a transverse and descending colon.
 Rectum- The descending part of colon opens into the rectum that stores the undigested
faecal matter temporarily before it is thrown out through the anus.
 Anus-
 It is the terminal part of alimentary canal that opens out and serves as the pathway for
egestion of undigested food.

Accessory digestive glands:

 The main digestive glands are salivary glands, gastric glands, liver, pancreas and intestinal glands.
 Digestion in Buccal cavity- Salivary glands:
 These glands are situated just outside the buccal cavity but secrete salivary juice into the
buccal cavity.
 There are three pairs of salivary glands-
 Parotid glands- It is the largest and located on each side below and slightly in front of the
ear.
 Sub-maxillary/ sub-mandibular- It lies on either side
below the lower jaw bone.
 Sub- lingual- It is located below the tongue.
 Salivary glands produce salivary juice that contains an
enzyme called salivary amylase.
 It breaks down starch (a complex carbohydrate) into simple
sugar.

salivary amylase
Starch (carbohydrate) Maltose + Glucose (simple sugar)

 Digestion in Stomach- Gastric glands:

 These are glands present in the wall of stomach. Their secretion is called gastric juice.
 This gastric juice contains:
Gastric secretion

dil. HCl Inactive pepsinogen Mucus

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dil. hydrochloric acid:

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→ Kills the germs present in food.

GAURAV B. PRASAD (M.Sc., DMLT, B.Ed.) Mobile: 9924353771
Class-10 Chapter- 7: Life Processes
→ Creates an acidic medium in stomach.
→ Acidic medium facilitates the conversion/ activation of pepsinogen into active
enzyme pepsin.
Pepsinogen:
→ Pepsinogen is inactive and cannot act on proteins.
→ It is first converted into Pepsin (active form) that acts on proteins and breaks
down (digests) proteins into peptides and amino acids.
Pepsinogen
dil. HCl

Pepsin
Proteins Polypeptides + amino acids
Rennin (proteolytic enzyme) in infants helps in milk digestion.
Mucus:
→ Protects the inner lining of stomach from the action of the dilute hydrochloric
acid under normal conditions.

 Digestion in Intestine- Liver, pancreas, intestinal glands:

 Intestine is the longest part of the alimentary canal that is compactly arranged in small space
by extensive coiling.
 The length of the small intestine in various animals depends on the type of food they eat.
o Herbivores- feed on plants that have cellulose. So, they need a longer small intestine to
allow the digestion of cellulose present in plants (grasses).
o Carnivores- feed on flesh/ meat of other animals. So, they have a shorter small intestine
as meat is easier to digest. E.g., Lion, tiger etc.
 Small intestine is the site where complete digestion of carbohydrates, proteins and fats take
place. For this, it receives the secretions of the liver and pancreas.
 The food coming from the stomach is acidic. The pancreatic enzymes are inactive and need
alkaline medium to become activated.
(i) Liver:
 Liver is located in the upper right abdominal cavity, just below the diaphragm.
 Bile juice secreted from the liver is stored in gall bladder and released in duodenum (part
of the small intestine). It contains bile salts but no enzymes.
 Bile salt performs three main functions:
→ It neutralises the acidic food coming from the stomach and converts into basic or
alkaline.
→ Basic or alkaline medium provided by bile salt helps to activate pancreatic enzymes.
→ It helps to break down fats (large globules) into very small globules/ droplets by a
process called emulsification. This increases the efficiency of enzyme action by
increasing the total surface area of lipids to react with lipase enzyme.
bile salt (emulsification)
i.e., large globule of fats smaller globules
(ii) Pancreas
 It is situated between the ‘C’ shaped (‘U’ shaped) limbs of the duodenum.
 It secretes pancreatic juice that contains enzymes necessary for digestion of carbohydrates
(amylase), proteins (trypsin), fats/ lipids (lipase), nucleic acids (nuclease) etc.
 These enzymes are activated in alkaline medium created by the action of bile salts.
trypsin
Proteins + Polypeptides Peptides + amino acids
Fats lipase fatty acids + glycerol
(iii) Intestinal glands
 The walls of the small intestine contain intestinal glands which secrete intestinal juice. It
contains enzymes that finally convert-
o Proteins to amino acids.
intestinal enzymes
Proteins + Peptides amino acids
o Complex carbohydrates into glucose.
Complex carbohydrates + maltose intestinal amylase glucose
o Fats into fatty acids and glycerol.
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Fats intestinal lipase fatty acids + glycerol

GAURAV B. PRASAD (M.Sc., DMLT, B.Ed.) Mobile: 9924353771

Class-10 Chapter- 7: Life Processes
 Food is absorbed by the ileum.
o The inner wall layer of intestine form finger like projections called vili.
o Cells that line villi bear microscopic projections called microvilli. These increase the surface
area.
o Villi is provided by a network of capillaries and lacteal (a large lymph vessel). This helps in
absorption of food in small intestine.

Dental caries
 Crown is the part above the gum line. The upper most layers are enamel and dentine. Enamel
forms hard surface of teeth.
 Tooth decay (also known as cavities or caries) is the breakdown of teeth due to acids produced
by bacteria.
 The acid is produced by the bacteria when they break down food particles or sugar present on the
tooth surface.
 These acids dissolve the hard tissues (enamel, dentin and cementum) of the teeth and causes
gradual softening of enamel and dentine and lead to demineralisation of the enamel.
 Masses of bacterial cells together with
food particles stick to the teeth to form
dental plaque.
 Saliva cannot reach the tooth surface to
neutralise the acid as plaque covers the
teeth.
 Brushing the teeth after eating removes
the plaque before the bacteria produce
acids.
 If untreated, microorganisms may
invade the pulp, causing inflammation
and infection.
 Regular cleaning of the mouth and the
teeth, a diet low in sugar can help
Fig.: Structure of a tooth prevent dental caries.
 Brushing teeth twice a day and flossing between the teeth once a day is needed.

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GAURAV B. PRASAD (M.Sc., DMLT, B.Ed.) Mobile: 9924353771