Question

What is the role of \[HCl\] acid in our stomach?

Answer 1

Hint: During digestion many acids in our stomach are secreted which facilitates the digestion of those particular compounds. \[HCl\] is also one of them. To find out the role of \[H\;Cl\] one must be aware of its functioning and what happens when it is secreted by our stomach.

Complete answer:
During the digestion process the food has to undergo many different parts of the digestive system where it is broken down from a complex form to a simpler form.
First we chew the food where the food is broken down into smaller parts and mixed with the saliva called bolus. This makes the food easy to swallow and then passing through the oesophagus it reaches the stomach.
The stomach wall is made up of many layers of mucous membrane, connective tissue with blood vessels and nerves and muscle fibre. The inner mucous membrane has a lot of tiny glands. These are of three different types which make digestive enzymes, \[Hydrochloric{\text{ }}acid\] , mucus and bicarbonate.
Gastric juice is made up of digestive enzymes, hydrochloric acid and many other substances. These are responsible for absorbing the nutrients. The \[Hydrochloric{\text{ }}acid\] in the gastric juice breaks down the food and the digestive enzymes split up the protein. The acidic gastric juice due to presence of \[Hydrochloric{\text{ }}acid\] also ensures that the bacteria must not survive thus protecting us from infections caused by these bacteria or microbes. \[Hydrochloric{\text{ }}acid\] during digestion converts the pepsinogen which is present in inactive form by providing an acidic medium, into pepsin which helps in metabolising the protein present in our body.

Note:
\[Hydrochloric{\text{ }}acid\] not only provides an acidic medium for conversion of pepsinogen to pepsin but also helps in absorbing the nutrients, breaking down the food into simpler molecules and making the digestion process simpler.