What Are the Constituents of the Intestinal Juice?

Intestinal juice is also called succus entericus. The word succus means juice and entericus means intestinal. The digestive juice completes the digestion of carbohydrate, protein and fat. It is secreted by glands lying between intestinal villi. The total quantity of intestinal juice per day is about 1-2 litres. It is alkaline in reaction (pH 8.0). The intestinal juice contains: water - 98.5% and solids - 1.5%. Of the solids, there are:

 Inorganic constituents (salts of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium with chloride, bicarbonate and phosphate), and

Organic constituents: The organic constituents present in the juice include the proteolytlc enzyme, carbohydrate-splitting and fat-splitting enzymes and some other enzymes. A brief review of these organic constituents present in the intestinal juice follows.