Digestion in the mouth

The mouth is bounded by muscular lips and formed by the upper and lower jaws. Only the lower jaw can move. Three pairs of salivary glands pour saliva into it, and the tongue tastes the food, mixes it with saliva and helps swallow it.

Hold a little bread or rice in your mouth for a while and it starts to taste sweet. Saliva contains the enzyme salivary amylase, which turns a little of the starch into maltose — digestion has begun.

Salivary amylase turns starch into maltose.

The chewed food is shaped into a bolus, pushed to the back of the mouth, and then into the pharynx.