Answer:
The major body structures belonging to the digestive system include: The mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine and rectum.
Explanation:
The digestive system is one of the major body systems in humans. It is responsible for the intake, breakdown and processing of food for energy and other necessary nutrients needed by the body for survival.
The mouth play a vital role in the process of digestion. The teeth help to chew food into smaller bits, the tongue helps push food into the esophagus. The digestion of certain food class like carbohydrates begin in the mouth through the secretion of ptyalin.
The esophagus is the passageway where food passes to the stomach.
In the stomach, food is digested through the secretion of hydrochloric acid which is naturally found in there. The hydrochloric acid further helps breakdown food for easy absorption and also destroy pathogenic substances.
From the stomach food moves into the small intestine where the actual absorption of nutrients occur through it's walls. The small intestine is divided into the duodenum, ileum and jejunum.
From the small intestine food moves to the large intestine where further processing and secretion of waste is done.
The wastes then move into the rectum for excretion through the anus.
