Question

What does the presence of vegetable cells in stool indicate?

Answer 1

Hint: Digestion refers to the breaking down of large insoluble food material into small soluble food particles so that they can be absorbed into the bloodstream and give energy by the process of assimilation.

Complete answer:
- The food is taken up by the process of ingestion and the process of mechanical digestion starts via mastication or chewing and contact of saliva.

- Later, food goes into the stomach where hydrochloric acid and pepsin act on the food.

- The food then passes through various chambers of the small intestine for complete digestion of food. It is to be noted that almost all of the digested food is absorbed into the bloodstream in the small intestine because of its huge surface area. This is because of the presence of villi and microvilli.

- Water and minerals are absorbed back in the large intestine along with the vitamins produced by the bacteria present in the colon.

- The last step of this whole process of digestion is called egestion. This is the elimination of waste material from the rectum during defecation. Everything that could not be digested or the leftover material is thrown out of the body.

- Humans, as omnivores, eat a lot of plant material but do not have cellular enzymes to break open the cellulose cell wall of the plant cells. Hence, humans cannot digest plant cells.

- Hence, it is totally normal to find the presence of vegetable cells in human stool.

Note: Stool is a common term used for human feces. Saliva contains salivary amylase which starts the digestion of starch in the food. Therefore, it is advised to have water which helps in release of stool.