Q.Why are villi present in the intestine and not in the stomach?

Step 1. Recall the role of villi: they are finger-like projections of the mucosa, each bearing further microscopic microvilli, whose whole purpose is to increase the surface area available for absorbing digested nutrients into the blood and lymph.

Step 2. Recall what the small intestine is for: it is the region where digestion is completed and where the bulk of absorption of monosaccharides, amino acids, fatty acids and other nutrients actually takes place, so it benefits enormously from the extra surface area villi provide.

Step 3. Recall what the stomach is for: it mainly stores food temporarily, churns it mechanically into chyme, and carries out the early stages of protein digestion using pepsin — very little absorption happens there (only some simple sugars, alcohol and certain medicines), so there is no strong functional need for villi. …

Compare the primary physiological role of the stomach (storage/secretion/limited digestion) against that of the intestine (digestion completion and ab …

• Forgetting that the stomach does carry out some absorption (of simple sugars, alcohol, certain drugs) — the point is that it is not the primary absorptive organ, not that it absorbs nothing at all. …