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Defecation (or defaecation) follows digestion, and is a necessary process by which organisms eliminate a solid, semisolid, or liquid waste material known as feces from the digestive tract via the anus or cloaca.
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Human feces photographed in a toilet, shortly after defecation.. Human feces (American English) or faeces (British English), commonly and in medical literature more often called stool, [1] are the solid or semisolid remains of food that could not be digested or absorbed in the small intestine of humans, but has been further broken down by bacteria in the large intestine.
Pseudodiarrhea, also known as hyperdefecation or excess stool, is defined as increased stool frequency (more than three times daily) with a normal daily stool weight of less than 300 g.
Feces are discharged through the anus or cloaca during defecation. Feces can be used as fertilizer or soil conditioner in agriculture. They can also be burned as fuel or dried and used for construction. Some medicinal uses have been found. In the case of human feces, fecal transplants or fecal bacteriotherapy are in use.
In the large intestine, [2] the passage of the digesting food in the colon is a lot slower, taking from 30 to 40 hours until it is removed by defecation. [31] The colon mainly serves as a site for the fermentation of digestible matter by the gut flora. The time taken varies considerably between individuals.
The same applies to preventing open defecation at a community-wide level and providing access to improved sanitation. [64] [73] This includes use of toilets and implementation of the entire sanitation chain connected to the toilets (collection, transport, disposal or reuse of human excreta).
For defecation to occur, rectal pressure must be greater than pressure in the anal canal, which depends on the relaxation of the external anal sphincter, the puborectalis and the intra-abdominal force applied. [37] In normal defecation, the pressure in the rectum increases at the same time as the pressure in the anal canal falls, leading to a ...