Question

What is the biological term given for 'the removal of nitrogenous waste from the body?

Answer 1

During metabolism several chemical reactions take place in our body. These reactions produce waste products like salt, water, urea and uric acid. These waste products need to be excreted out of our body because their accumulation beyond a limit is harmful to our body.

Complete answer: The process of removal of nitrogenous waste from the body is called excretion. In Platyhelminthes, protonephridia or flame cells are the excretory structures. Nephridia are the excretory structures in earthworms. Green plants produce oxygen and water as their waste products during their process of respiration, and those waste products are utilized by us during the respiration process. Birds excrete nitrogenous waste as uric acid in the form of pastes with minimum loss of water. In insects, they use malpighian tubules to excrete metabolic wastes, which gets actively transported into the tubules and further the waste products into their intestine. Then, finally, the metabolic wastes get excreted out from the body in the form of faecal transports. In animals, the main excretory waste products are carbon dioxide, ammonia, urea and uric acid. Skin, liver and kidney excrete most of the waste products from the blood and rest are excreted by urine and faeces.

Note: Ammonia, urea and uric acid are the major forms of nitrogenous wastes excreted by animals. Ammonia is the most toxic form of waste and requires a large amount of water for its elimination, whereas nucleic acids, being the least toxic can be removed with a minimum loss of water.