The liver is also a “chemical factory” — performing over 500 chemical functions in your body! The liver takes certain materials in your body and turns them into something else. For example, your liver turns proteins and sugars into things that your body needs.

The liver produces blood-clotting factors that are needed to help you heal after an injury.

It also stores vitamins, hormones, cholesterol, and minerals. Your liver lets go of these chemicals and nutrients when your body needs them, and they flow into your bloodstream.

The liver also produces a greenish fluid called bile. Tubes, called "bile ducts," connect the liver and another organ, the gallbladder, to the small intestine. The bile that is made by the liver helps to digest fats in the small intestine.