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. 2022 Dec 19;11(24):4118.
doi: 10.3390/foods11244118.

Comparison of Milk Odd- and Branched-Chain Fatty Acids among Human, Dairy Species and Artificial Substitutes

Silvia Carta  1 , Fabio Correddu  1 , Gianni Battacone  1 , Giuseppe Pulina  1 , Anna Nudda  1
Affiliations

Comparison of Milk Odd- and Branched-Chain Fatty Acids among Human, Dairy Species and Artificial Substitutes

Silvia Carta et al. Foods. .

Abstract

The aim of the study was to compare odd and branched-chain fatty acids (OBCFA) of milk from sheep, goat, cow, buffalo, donkey, human, and formula milk. Ruminant, monogastric, and human milks have different concentrations of these fatty acids (FA). To highlight the differences on OBCFA, a total of 282 individual milk samples were analyzed by gas chromatography. The OBCFA were found higher in ruminant than non-ruminant milks (p < 0.05). Among ruminants, sheep milk had the highest OBCFA (4.5 g/100 g of total FAME), whereases the lowest values were found in formula milk (0.18 g/100 g of total FAME). Regarding individual linear odd-chain FA (linear-OCFA), C11:0 was found higher in donkey milk than others, while sheep and buffalo milks had the greatest concentration of C15:0. Among BCFA, the iso-BCFA were higher than anteiso-BCFA in all considered milks. The isoC17:0 showed the highest concentration in all milks except for donkey and buffalo, which showed higher concentration of isoC16:0 than others. In conclusion, ruminant milks are different in terms of these FA compared to human milk and its substitutes. However, the greatest differences were found with formula milk, suggesting that this product needs the implementation of these FA to be more similar to human milk composition.

Keywords: OBCFA; donkey milk; health; human milk; infant formula; ruminant milk.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Score plots of the two first principal components explaining 47 and 19% of the total variance, respectively.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Loadings plot of the two first principal components explaining 47 and 19% of the total variance, respectively.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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