Food is taken into the mouth and chewed by the teeth.This breaks it into small pieces,giving it a large surface area.
Saliva enters the mouth, and is thoroughly mixed with the food. Saliva contains salivary amylase, this starts hydrolysing any starch in the food to maltose.
The food is swallowed and enters the stomach, where the conditions are acidic. This acid denatures the amylase and prevents further hydrolysis of the starch.
The food then passes into the small intestine, where it mixes with pancreatic juice.The pancreatic juice contains pancreatic amylase. This continues the hyrdrolysis of any remaning starch to maltose.
Muscles in the intestine wall push the food along the small intestine.ITs lining produces maltase. This hydrolyses maltose into glucose.
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