Health-promoting properties of goat milk

摘要

Goat milk is a valuable food product and excellent raw material from which products of high nutritive value and exquisite taste are made. Many studies showed that goat milk contains 2.9-3.8% of protein, 2.8-5.9% of fat, 4.1-4.9% of lactose and 11.5-13.6% of total solids on average. The higher digestibility and absorption of goat milk is mainly associated with the content of whey proteins. Whey proteins account for 0.6-0.7% of milk and show beneficial nutritive, physiological and functional properties. About 75% of all milk whey proteins are albumins, which include alpha-lactoalbumins and beta-lactoglobulins, a rich source of bioactive peptides with extra physiological activity. Other whey proteins are lactoferrin, lactoperoxidase, immunoglobulins, glycomacropeptide, and various growth factors. The quality of fat is largely determined by the content of individual fatty acids. As is clear from numerous studies the profile of fatty acids is more beneficial in goat milk compared to sheep and bovine milk because of the UFA/SFA is the ratio 0.56, of 0.52 (sheep milk) vs. 0.37 (bovine milk). In addition, milk is a rich source of vitamins and minerals. The goat milk compared to bovine milk contains a similar amount of vitamin B-6 and pantothenic acid, niacin more (about 3.5-fold) but less vitaminum B-12 (about 4-fold), and folic acid (approximately 6-fold). In terms of mineral composition of goat milk compared to bovine milk, the former is richer in calcium, phosphorus, potassium and chlorine, and lower in sodium, sulfur, iron and copper. However, sheep milk is richer than the milk of goats and cows in both mineral compositions (except for potassium, manganese and copper) and vitamins (except vitamin A and biotin).