Excretion



  Excretion is the process of eliminating waste products of metabolism and other non-useful materials.[1] It is an essential process in all forms of life. It contrasts secretion, where the substance may have specific tasks after leaving the cell.

In stomata, or pores, on the surface of leaves. Animals have special excretory organs.

Human excretion

In humans, the two major excretory processes are the formation of urine in the kidneys and the formation of hormonal control over excretion occurs in the distal tubules of the kidneys as directed by the hypothalamus.

In kidney

Main article: Clearance (medicine)

In humans the main organs of excretion are the kidneys and accessory urinary organs, through which urine is eliminated,[2] and the large intestines, from which solid wastes are expelled. The skin and lungs also have excretory functions: the skin eliminates water and carbon dioxide.

Other

  • Mucociliary excretion is the excretion of mucus in the respiratory system.

Non-human

  Plants have been shown (by British biologist Brian J. Ford) to translocate wastes into leaves which are then shed. In this fashion, the leaf, in addition to acting as an energy-trapping structure, is also a plant's organ of excretion.

Aquatic animals usually excrete solubility and there is ample water available for dilution. In terrestrial animals ammonia-like compounds are converted into other nitrogenous materials as there is less water in the environment and ammonia itself is toxic.

Most mammals excrete urea, an ancestral trait.

Birds excrete their nitrogenous wastes as uric acid in the form of a paste. This is metabolically more expensive, but allows more efficient water retention and it can be stored more easily in the egg. Many avian species, especially seabirds, can also excrete salt via specialized nasal salt glands, the saline solution leaving through nostrils in the beak.

Perspiration is another excretory process which removes salts and water, although the primary purpose is cooling.

In insects, a system involving Malpighian tubules is utilized to excrete metabolic waste. Metabolic waste diffuses or is actively transported into the tubule, which transports the wastes to the intestines. The metabolic waste is then released from the body along with fecal stuffs.

Etymology

Many people misuse the term excretion as a euphemism for defecation, and use excrement for feces, but this is medically inexact.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Beckett, B. S. (1986). Biology: A Modern Introduction. Oxford University Press, 110. ISBN 0199142602. 
  2. ^ Tigerstedt, Dr. Robert (1906). A Text-book of Human Physiology. D. Appleton and Co., 384-390. 
  3. ^ (Tigerstedt, pg. 395)

See also

 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Excretion". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.