Bile juice contains no digestive enzymes, yet it is important for digestion. Why?
The bile juice released into the duodenum contains bile pigments (bilirubin and biliverdin), bile salts, cholesterol, and phospholipids but no enzymes. Bile helps in the emulsification of fats i.e. break down the fats into very small micelles. Bile also activates lipases. Bile is alkaline (pH about 8). Bile pigments are excreted in faeces. In absence of HCl, the above-mentioned functions will not occur and digestion of food will be affected.
