2.30 Recall that bile is produced by the liver and stored in the
gall bladder, and understand the role of bile in neutralizing
stomach acid and emulsifying lipids.
 Bile is made in the liver and stored in the gall bladder.
 It is a greenish yellow alkaline liquid.
 The function of bile is to neutralize the acidic contents,
which come out of the stomach and enter the small
intestine.
 It also breaks lipids into small droplets to increase the
surface area for digestion by lipases.
Bile
Lipase - Enzyme
Large Lipid drop
 In the diagram above the lipase enzymes can only
digest around the outside of the large lipid drop, this
does not provide a very large surface area for them to
work on and so digestion will be slow.
Bile
Bile
Small Lipid Drop
 In the diagram below the bile is emulsifying the lipid
into small droplets.
 This provides a much larger surface area for lipases to
act on and digestion is much quicker.