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November 24th , 2024

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COLOURATION OF STOOL AND URINE

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COLOURATION OF STOOL ( FAECES) AND URINE

Everybody poops but have you wondered why among all the colours the colour of your poop is brown? 

This question might seem to be a simple and a normal biological process and for that no one cares .But the body does this to ensure no waste substance is maintained or transported to other parts of the body but to be excreted. 

With this let see how and why the colour of your feaces has since and still chosen to be BROWN.

The colour of  urine and faeces  are  out of the pigments of a bile .

A bile is produced by  the Liver therefore,  the Liver is  large , reddish brown organ that lies just below the diaphragm and partly overlaps the stomach . The liver produces the bile , which is stored in the gall bladder and released into the duodenum during digestion.  

The Bile really plays an important role in the digestion of fats and oils. 

Talking of which,  a  Bile is an alkaline fluid with high water content produced by the liver and stored in the gall bladder in the liver . The bile contains some salts called bile salts , which are sodium glycocholate and sodium taurocholate .The bile itself is a by- product from the breakdown of the red blood cells by the liver cells .

The bile is released into the duodenum through a common duct that links the pancreas .

Bile Pigments :  These are Biliverdin and  Bilirubin etc. They are produced from the break down of heam of haemoglobin of the red blood cells in the liver cells . Bilirubin that escapes the intestines are excreted by the kidneys and contributes to yellowing colour of the urine .

Stercobilinogen (fecal urobilinogen) is a chemical created by bacteria in the gut. It is made of broken-down hemoglobin. It is further processed to become the chemical that gives feaces its brown colour.

How Bilirubin Affects Urine

This bilirubin travels from the liver into the small intestine. A very small amount passes into your kidneys and is excreted in your urine. This bilirubin also gives urine its distinctive yellow colour. There is also a Bilirubin test which is often done to look for liver problems, such as hepatitis, or blockages, such as gallstones.

Mechanism Of The Colourization Of Stool (feaces )

Stercobilin is responsible for the brown colour of human feaces. "It should be pointed out that human faeces are usually light to dark brown in colour and are composed of a combination of the bilirubin derivatives, mainly stercobilin and some urobilin," Wang explained. "The longer stercobilin is oxidized, the darker the stool will be. The colour of faeces also depends on the freshness of the stool, the concentration of (Ashitey, 2008) stercobilin, and the stercobilin/urobilin ratio.






References

De Carvalho, M., Robertson, S., & Klaus, M. (1985). Fecal bilirubin excretion and serum bilirubin concentrations in breast-fed and bottle-fed infants. The Journal of Pediatrics, 107(5), 786–790. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-3476(85)80418-2

 

Ashitey, R. A. (2008). Biology Fast Track. 

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