Junior+Presentation+2+Group+12

Group 6: Outline the reasons for cellulose not being digested in the alimentary canal. [] Imagine that you put one end of a hose in your mouth and kept threading it through until it came out of your butt. That's more or less what the alimentary canal is.

You put food in one end of the tube and it's processed during its journey to the other end of the tube, where the waste material comes out.

In real life, the alimentary canal consists of the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and [|large intestine]. In adults, the alimentary canal is about 30 feet long.

Other names for the alimentary canal include the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, digestive tract, alimentary tract, and nourishment canal. [] Humans are unable to digest cellulose because the appropriate enzymes to breakdown the beta acetal linkages are lacking. (More on enzyme digestion in a later chapter.) Undigestible cellulose is the fiber which aids in the smooth working of the intestinal tract. Even though we cannot digest cellulose, we find many uses for it including: Wood for building; paper products; cotton, linen, and rayon for clothes; nitrocellulose for explosives; cellulose acetate for films.
 * Cellulose:** Beta glucose is the monomer unit in cellulose. As a result of the bond angles in the beta acetal linkage, cellulose is mostly a linear chain.
 * Starch:** Alpha glucose is the monomer unit in starch. As a result of the bond angles in the alpha acetal linkage, starch-amylose actually forms a spiral much like a coiled spring.

[] Because they do not have the specific enzyme (which are produce by bacteria's in most herbivores located in their stomach) that can break down the cellulose. Even though it is a form of glucose,its structure is very rigid and very hard to be broken down into simpler substrates unless with the specific enzyme.

Function
[] Cellulases contribute to the enzymatic splitting of cellulose. As reinforcing material in all plant tissues, cellulose is the most widespread organic compound in terms of quantity. It commonly may be found together with other structural substances such as [|lignin] or hemicellulose.
 * Cellulose cannot be exploited in the human digestive tract using the body’s own emzymes. Cellulose is broken down by microbial flora present in the large intestine, but the resulting products are not absorbed by the body. In nutrition, cellulose is regarded as roughage.
 * Cellulases are used in many technical processes to make soluble the cellulose that is present in plant-based raw materials.

Plan: bring printer paper to draw on tomorrow for possible diagrams do a little more research, go in depth more if all else fails do a powerpoint it willl be important to find out the spcific enzymes

G O T E A M !