SSC
Bile juice, which is stored in the gall bladder, is secreted by the:
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Answer: Option C — Liver
Detailed Solution
The liver is the largest gland and the largest internal organ in the human body, weighing about 1.2-1.5 kilograms in an adult. It is located in the upper right part of the abdomen, below the diaphragm. Liver cells continuously produce a greenish-yellow fluid called bile, about 500-1,000 millilitres a day.
Bile is stored and concentrated in the gall bladder, a small, pear-shaped sac located under the liver. When fatty food enters the small intestine (duodenum), a hormone called cholecystokinin causes the gall bladder to contract and release bile through the common bile duct into the duodenum.
Functions of bile:
Emulsification of fats: bile contains bile salts, which break large fat globules into tiny droplets. This greatly increases the surface area for the fat-digesting enzyme lipase (from the pancreas) to act on. Bile itself contains no digestive enzymes.
It makes the food in the intestine alkaline, neutralising the acid from the stomach, so that pancreatic enzymes can work.
It helps absorb fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K).
It helps remove waste products, such as bilirubin (from the breakdown of old red blood cells) and excess cholesterol, from the body.
The colour of bile comes from bile pigments, bilirubin and biliverdin. When the liver does not work properly, or the bile duct is blocked, bilirubin builds up in the blood, causing jaundice, in which the skin and eyes turn yellow.
Other functions of the liver include storing glycogen, vitamins and iron; making proteins such as albumin and clotting factors; detoxifying drugs and alcohol; and converting excess amino acids into urea. The liver can regenerate itself after damage. Gallstones, hard deposits that form in the gall bladder, can block the flow of bile.
Why not the other options?
- ✗The pancreas secretes pancreatic juice (with amylase, trypsin and lipase) and the hormones insulin and glucagon.
- ✗The stomach secretes hydrochloric acid and pepsin.
- ✗The small intestine secretes intestinal juice (succus entericus).
Quick tip
Remember: Bile = made by the liver, stored in the gall bladder, emulsifies fats (no enzymes); liver = largest gland; jaundice = bilirubin build-up; lipase comes from the pancreas.
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Nutrition, Vitamins & Digestion — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Nutrition, Vitamins & Digestion, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers human nutrition: carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals, their sources and the diseases caused by their deficiency, balanced diet, and the human digestive system with its organs, glands and enzymes. Exam questions frequently ask which deficiency causes which disease (scurvy from lack of vitamin C, rickets from vitamin D, night blindness from vitamin A and beriberi from vitamin B1), the chemical names of vitamins, and where each nutrient is digested. The liver is the largest gland in the human body and produces bile. Practise the nutrition, vitamins and digestion questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.