A review on medicinal properties of Camel milk

Introduction

Historically, camel milk has been used for a number of medical problems [1,2] . According to [3] statistics, there are about 1 8 million camels in the world. Nowadays, camel milk production is in progress in many countries in both Asia and Africa due to increased demand. Raw and pasteurized milk and other dairy products made from camel milk are available in the markets of Gulf are a and other countiers [4]. Most of camel milk is consumed in the raw state without any heat treatments and kept at high temperature with lack of refrigeration facilities during milking and transporting [5] . Camel milk has properties that it can be kept for long periods than cow‘s milk when refrigerated and even with the desert heat it doesnot spoil shortly [6]. Moreover, the milk composition of dromedary camel is excellent from a nutritional view point [7] . Camel milk also has valuable nutritional properties as it contains a high proportion of antibacterial substances and higher concentration of vitamin C in comparison with cow milk [8, 9] have reported a unique camel milk health benefit in diabetic patients. Camel milk is much more nutritious than that of cow milk because it is low in fat and lactose contents, and higher in potassium, iron and vitamin C, [10]. Camel milk has medicinal properties and contains protective proteins, which may have a possible role for enhancing the immune defense mechanism [11]. Th e triglycerides, which contain a great variety of fatty acids, are accompanied with small amounts of di - and mono - acylglycerols, cholesterols, free fatty acids and phospholipids [12]. In average, camel milk contains more proteins and whey protein than cowmil k [13]. The ability of camel milk to inhibit growth of pathogenic bacteria and its relation to whey lysozyme has been demonstratedin previous study. [14]. The reported average of Iysozyme content in human milk is 40 000 mg/100 ml and in cow milk 120 mg/10 0 ml [15]. The significantly very high level of Iysozyme in camel milk is of importance for the storage of milk and needs further investigation. [5] Also reported about extracted Iysozyme (Lz), lactoferrin (Lf), lactoperoxidase (Lp), immunoglobulin G and i mmunoglobulin A from camel milk. [16] Reviewed the ability of camel milk to inhibit growth of pathogenic bacteria and its relations to whey lysozyme. The lysozyme content of twenty samples showing growth inhibition was 648 - 956 g/100ml which was significan tly higher than the average in 38 samples (62.8 - 956 g/100ml) with no inhibitory effect. The activity of these protective proteins was assayed against some pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium and rotavirus. [17] reported tha t the proteolytic activities of yogurt starters at (42 o C for 4 h) were higher in camel milk than in cow milk. [18] observed that camel milk failed to form gel - like structure after 18 h incubation with lactic acid culture; this was attributed to the presenc e of antibacterial factors such aslysozymes, lactoferrin. Shubat is camel‘s sour milk from Kazakhstan [19]. Kefir is the Caucasian fermented camel‘s milk [11]. Lehban is fermented products from camel‘s milk in Syria and Egypt [2