Impact of management system and lactation stage on fatty acids composition in camel milk

This study aimed to investigate the impact of management system and lactation stage on camel milk fatty acids (FA) composition, with emphasis on odd and branched-chain FA (OBCFA), conjugated linoleic acids (CLA), and trans-FA (TFA). Milk samples were collected from thirteen camels managed under intensive and semi-intensive systems at early, mid, and late lactation. Our results provided for the first time the OBCFA profile in camel milk. Eleven OBCFA are identified with a predominance of C15:0, anteiso-C15:0, anteiso-C17:0, and C17:0. The vaccenic acid (VA) was the predominant TFA; other isomers appeared in smaller amounts. The Δ9-desaturase activity measured as desaturation index of C14:0 was relatively high in the mammary gland of camel. Milk from the semi-intensive system was characterized by a higher nutritional value, due to the higher contents of polyunsaturated FA, total CLA, RA, VA, linoleic, and α-linolenic compared with milk from the intensive system. Few differences were found in the OBCFA profile throughout lactation. Our study provided deeper information on FA composition, showing that camel milk is a good source of OBCFA, RA and VA. These results have to be taken into account in the investigation of the functional properties of camel milk fat as well as in the ongoing intensification of camel farming systems.

Source: Journal of Food Composition and Analysis - January 11, 2020 Category: Food Science Source Type: research