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bile juice doesnt contain enzymes but it is still needed for digestion why?

Bile is a digestive juice secreted by the liver. Although it does not contain any digestive enzymes, it plays an important role in the digestion of fats. Bile juice has bile salts such as bilirubin and biliverdin. These break down large fat globules into smaller globules so that the pancreatic enzymes can easily act on them. This process is known as emulsification of fats. Bile juice also makes the medium alkaline and activates lipase.

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Bile juice is needed for emulsification of fats and for turning the medium alkaline. The pancreatic and intestinal enzymes only work in alkaline conditions. Enzymes like trypsin and steapsin are activated only in alkaline conditions thus bile juice is important. Also the enzymes that breakdown fats like steapsin need emulsified fats. Emulsification makes the huge fat molecules smaller and increases the surface area leading to optimum surface area for the enzymes to work on thus making the process of digestion possibe.

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