Large Intestine (colon)
The colon is the main reservoir for feces (mainly in rectum) before defecation. It is also where the liquid stool becomes solid, by losing its water, and electrolytes. The colon also actively secretes bicarbonate and potassium, which explains why severe diarrhea can cause metabolic acidosis as well as hypokalemia. The colon also houses symbiotic bacteria that produce vitamin by-products and are essential to the human health and homeostasis.
Read more about this topic: Digestive Enzyme
Famous quotes containing the words large and/or intestine:
“I don’t think it is always necessary to take up the anti-colonial—or is it post- colonial?—cudgels against English. What seems to me to be happening is that those people who were once colonized by the language are now rapidly remaking it, domesticating it, becoming more and more relaxed about the way they use it—assisted by the English language’s enormous flexibility and size, they are carving out large territories for themselves within its frontiers.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1948)
“Which came first the intestine or the tapeworm?”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)