• Located in right hypochondriac region.

• It is a pear-shaped sac from 7-10cm long and 3cm broad at its widest point. Can hold 30-50 ml of bile.

• Divided into four anatomic portions: the fundus, the corpus or body, infundibulum, and the neck.

• Fundus is the rounded, blind end

• Normally extends beyond the liver's margin

• It may be unusually kinked and present the appearance of a “phrygian cap.”

• It contains most of the smooth muscle of the organ

• Corpus or body, which is the major storage area and contains most of the elastic tissue.

• The body tapers into the neck, which is funnel-shaped and connects with the cystic duct.

• The neck usually follows a gentle curve, the convexity of which may be distended into a dilatation known as the infundibulum, or Hartmann's pouch.

• The Gallbladder is a small, pear-shaped organ in the abdomen.  Its job is to store and release bile, a fluid made by the liver.  Bile helps break down fats in the food you eat.

• Your liver makes bile.

• Most of the bile is sent through a network of ducts to the duodenum (first part of the small intestine).  A small amount of bile is also sent to the gallbladder for storage.

COMPONENTS:• BILE SALTS, (formed in the liver from

cholesterol) are the most essential part of bile.

• BILE PIGMENTS-The pigment bilirubin (red) and biliverdin (green), derived from hemoglobin, give bile its greenish color because it secretes bile into ducts.

• CHOLESTEROL• PHOSPHOLIPIDS

FUNCTIONS OF BILE

1. It breaks down the fats that you eat so that your body can utilize them.

2. Bile is a very powerful antioxidant which helps to remove toxins from the liver.

• The gallbladder stores some bile.  The gallbladder concentrates the bile by removing the water.  When bile is needed to digest fats, hormones (chemical messengers) signal the gallbladder to squeeze bile out through the cystic duct.

• Bile is sent to the duodenum. The bile moves through the common bile duct to the duodenum. There, it mixes with food. The pancreas  adds other digestive juices. Digestion continues in the small intestine