a continuously manufactured secretion of the adenoblasts of the liver in vertebrates and man.
The liver of the human adult secretes as much as 1.2 liters of bile in 24 hours; in some diseases bile secretion may increase or decrease. There is a distinction between hepatic bile, a slightly viscous golden-yellow fluid secreted directly into the intestine independent of digestion, and cystic bile, which accumulates in the gallbladder (a viscous, yellow-brown or greenish fluid) and is discharged into the intestine according to the amount of food present there. The principal components of bile are water, bile acids, bile pigments, cholesterol, and inorganic salts. Of the enzymes, phosphatases have been found in the bile; of the hormones, thyroxine (the hormone of the thyroid gland), whose discharge from the body occurs to a significant degree with the bile, has been found. In the intestine, bile promotes the decomposition, saponification, emulsification, and absorption of fats, and it intensifies peristalsis. The discharge of bile into the intestine is regulated by the entry of food into the intestine and by several special hormones, such as secretin, formed in the walls of the small intestine, and cholecystokinin, formed in the mucosa of the duodenum; fatty substances, such as the fats of milk and eggs, stimulate contraction and evacuation of the gallbladder.
Some metabolic products, toxins, and medications may be discharged along with the bile into the intestine. Preparations containing bile and bile acids (dehydrocholic acid, Decholin, allochol, and cholenzym) are used as bile-flow stimulating agents; preserved medicinal bile (with added ethyl alcohol and a preservative) is used externally as an analgesic and resorptive in arthroses, arthritides, bursitides, and radiculitides.
IA. O. OL’SHANSKII