Answer:
stomach acids
Explanation:
Gastric juice or chyme is the clear liquid secreted in abundance by numerous microscopic glands scattered throughout the stomach lining.
Functionally, it can be said that gastric juice is a very strong acid that is found in the stomach and that serves to eliminate the part of food that is useless, that is, that part that cannot be transformed into energy for the body
Gastric acid is a product of the secretion of parietal or oxytic gastric cells, fulfills essential biological roles for body homeostasis. The production of gastric acid depends on an effector cellular process consisting of histamine, acetylcholine and gastrin in the first level, constituting the first messengers of said process.
Its function is to act mainly on the digestion of proteins, due to the effect of the enzymes pepsin and renin, to favor the absorption of nutrients in the small intestine. The parietal cells produce hydrochloric acid (HCl) that activates the enzyme pepsinogen that is subsequently transformed into pepsin.
Due to the presence of hydrochloric acid, the pH takes a value between one and two. This acidic medium facilitates the degradation (hydrolysis) of proteins to convert them into smaller units.
From a microbiological point of view, most bacteria cannot survive long in a very acidic environment. Constantly and inevitably, common bacteria enter our body through the nose and mouth.
Normally these bacteria upon reaching the stomach, would die to be in a very low pH. However, if gastric acid is deficient, many of these microbes can live, multiply and infect us. Most of these bacteria that enter through these pathways are harmless, but there are some such as salmonella, escherichia coli and vibrium cholerae that can cause serious illness and even death when stomach acid levels are low.
