What is Bolus in biology?
Consequently, what is the meaning of bolus in biology?
In digestion, a bolus (from Latin bolus, "ball") is a ball-like mixture of food and saliva that forms in the mouth during the process of chewing (which is largely an adaptation for plant-eating mammals). Under normal circumstances, the bolus is swallowed, and travels down the esophagus to the stomach for digestion.
Also to know is, what is a bolus and how is it formed?
The first step in the digestion process is mastication, or chewing, when food is broken down, lubricated with saliva, and formed into a cohesive mass known as the food bolus. Upon swallowing, the bolus moves to the stomach and undergoes further breakdown during gastric digestion.
A bolus, very broadly, is a mass of a substance that is about to be passed into, or is already inside of, some sort of tube-like structure of the body. This can refer to: Food that has been chewed and formed into a round mass inside the mouth, about to be swallowed. Undigested food passing through the digestive tract.