Digestion in the Mouth

The mouth is the beginning of the digestive tract and digestion starts in the mouth.

Digestion of starch starts in the mouth. When we put carbohydrate food such as bread into our mouth, digestion starts when we start chewing the food.

During the chewing, saliva produced in the mouth. This contains an enzyme called salivary amylase (ptyalin).

So, during the chewing, the saliva mixes with the food and this starts breaking the polysaccharides in the carbohydrate food.

The food in the mouth gets into the stomach through the oesophagus. This movement is due to the muscular contraction of the oesophagus called peristalsis.