Q. What are the digestive functions of the liver?

The liver has other digestive functions, besides making bile for release in the duodenum.

The venous network that absorbs nutrients from the guts called mesenteric circulation drains its blood content almost completely to the hepatic portal vein. This vein irrigates the liver with absorbed material from the digestion. So the liver has the functions of storing, inactivating and processing nutrients.

Glucose is polymerized into glycogen in the liver this organ also stores many vitamins and the iron absorbed in the intestine, some important metabolic molecules like clotting and albumin factors are made in the liver from amino acids of the diet. In the liver ingested toxic substances like drugs and alcohol, are inactivated too.