What is Gastrointestinal system- concept of agni

GASTROINTESTINAL SYSTEM- CONCEPT OF AGNI Meaning

The Gastrointestinal (GI) system is also called as the digestive system and includes the various organs of the human digestive tract from the mouth to the anal opening, plus the liver, pancreas and gallbladder.¹

Fig 1: The GI tract in humans ¹

The organs that are a part of the GI tract include the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, the rectum and anus. These organs all play an important role in digestion of food and release of energy and nutrients. ¹

According to Ayurveda, digestion and metabolism are governed by the Jathar agni (gastric fire). In the Ayurvedic physiology, vital breath (Prana), immunity (Ojas) and cellular memory (Tejas) are all considered expressions of nutrition via the means of Agni. ²

Ayurveda places high importance on the concept of Ahar (diet) and Anna (food) as principally the tenets of Ayurveda observe that a healthy nutrition nourishes the mind, body and soul. Ayurveda emphasizes on the various factors that can influence food and its organic properties. These include the place of origin, external environmental factors, method of preparation, etc and offers a systematic reasoning to follow food as per the dosha and physical needs.²

The GI system as per Ayurveda:

Ayurvedic texts have described the anatomy and physiology of the major organs in Human body. They outline the Amashaya (Stomach),Pakwashaya (Duodenum), Antra (Intestines) and Guda (rectum/sigmoid colon) as the organs involved in activities of digestion. ⁴

The concept of Agni is a major basic concept inAyurveda. It is considered to be the cause of life, skin color, strength, health, nourishment and energy.⁵

• Jatharagni is the Agni or bioenergy present in the Jathara (stomach and duodenum). It stays in Small intestine (duodenum). It withholds the food for a certain time inside the Amasaya (stomach) to facilitate digestion.
• Jatharagni is considered to be the most important because each and every nutrient that one ingests first comes to the Jathara (stomach) and is subjected to the action of Jatharagni.
• Jatharagni digests the food materials that consist of the five basic elements and transforms it for utilization by the respective tissues (Dhatus paramanus).
• Jatharagni is also responsible for separation of the food material into the nutrients (Prasad) and the waste products (kitta) in our body. ⁷

The strength of the small intestine depends on the jatharagni and strength o jatharagni depends on small intestine. When the Agni undergoes imbalance, small intestine gets disturbed and produces diseases.6