Physicochemical Characteristics of Goat ’ s Milk

As goat’s milk has many therapeutic properties and nutritive value, various investigators studied its chemical composition and physical characteristics; where these compositional changes, may alter the processing quality of goat’s milk. So, this study aware with some physiochemical properties of goats milk as a functional diet for human health. [Hayam M. Abbas, Fatma A.M. Hassan, Mona A.M. Abd El-Gawad and A. K. Enab. Physicochemical Characteristics of Goat’s Milk. Life Sci J 2014; 11(1s):307-317]. (ISSN: 1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite. com. 56 Keyword: Goat’s milk, Milk lipids, Milk proteins, Physicochemical Characteristics. Introduction Since ancient times, goat animal has been exploited for its milk. The production of goats milk (caprine) is major importance in several countries where climatic conditions are not favorable for cattle keeping (Juarez and Ramos, 1984). In 1981, world goat’s milk production was 7236 tons contributed only 1.6% to all world milk production and ranked the fourth after cows (91.2%), buffaloes (5.6%) and ewes (1.9%) milk (Le-Jaouen 1981). However, world production of goat’s milk reached in 1994 approx. 8 million tons/year (Dostalova, 1994). In 1997, LePape et al., stated that consumption of goats milk and goats cheese was increasing most rapidly in Northern European countries, thus was attributed to consumer mistrust of cow like products after the BSE scare. In Egypt, the total population of goat animals is approx. 3198000 produced about 13000 tons of milk, (Egyptian Central Organization 1996),however a growing interest with respect to production and utilization of goats milk is recently observed. Dairy product goat and sheep farming are a vital part of the national economy in many countries, especially in the Mediterranean and Middle East region and are particularly well organized in France, Italy, Spain and Greece (Chiafalo et al., 2004) presently, India possesses 126 million goats which contribute 14.5% of the world (FAO, 2009). Goats milk, as all other milks, contains various nutrients either as major components or as macro and micro components. It’s considered as an ancient product for the diet of today. Jenness (1980) recorded that goats milk is approx. isocaloric as cows and buffalo’s milk each furnishes about 750 Kcal/l. In 1981, Le-Jaouen reported that goat’s milk has similar vitamins contents of human milk except lower content of folic acid, Vit. C and Inositol. He added that goats butter is reputed to been effective remedy against disease such as rheumatism and arthritis. Goat’s milk contains vitamins, minerals, trace elements, electrolytes, enzymes, proteins, and fatty acids that are easily assimilated by the body. Goat’s milk has a similarity to human milk that is unmatched in cow milk and also has several medicinal values. Therefore awareness about advantage of consumption of goats milk should be popularized so that production and utilization of goat’s milk could be enhanced (Kumar et al., 2012). Goats milk shows therapeutic virtues for individuals with certain dietetic problems, thus physicians have traditionally recommended goats milk for infant and others allergic to cow milk. Similarly it has been used in treatment of ulcers (Mereado, 1982, Kumar et al., 2012). Superiority of goats milk is due to better fat and protein digestibility and assimilation; to its significantly higher minerals & vitamins composition and to incidence of allergy is lower (Bielak 1993; and Dostalova, 1994, Belewu et al., 2002). As goat’s milk has these therapeutic properties and nutritive value, many investigators studied its chemical composition and physical characteristics where these compositional changes, may alter the processing quality of goats milk. Some Factors affecting the composition of goat’s milk Composition of goat’s milk widely differs according to many various factors. The three main effective factors are breeds (indigenous or selected breeds), stage of lactation, feeding or rations