Donkey Milk: An Overview of its Chemical Composition and Main Nutritional Properties or Human Health Benefit Properties.

The research discusses the nutritional similarities of donkey milk to human milk and its potential as a functional food with numerous health benefits such as antioxidant, antibacterial, and antiviral properties. A need for human clinical trials to assess its therapeutic properties is also highlighted.

Chemical Composition Similarity to Human Milk

• The paper talks about how donkey milk has a notable similarity to human milk in terms of its nutritional composition.
• This feature paves the way for the milk’s usage as a possible nutritional substitute, particularly when cow milk is not suited for consumption due to allergies or intolerances.

Nutritional Properties

• The study points out that donkey milk contains low levels of fat, cholesterol, total proteins, and casein.
• Conversely, it bears high contents of lactose, whey proteins, calcium, selenium, and Vitamin D3.
• The overall nutritional profile of donkey milk suggests it could strongly contribute to one’s health when introduced into the diet.

Functional Food and Health Benefits

• Due to its fatty-acid profile and content of essential fatty acids, the paper suggests considering donkey milk as a functional food, beneficial for cardiac health.
• Beyond nutritional components, donkey milk also carries numerous protective proteins, which could have beneficial effects like being antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, hypoglycemic, antiparasitic, and antitumor.

Needs for Fat Enrichment and Market Limitations

• Despite its promising features, there are several challenges that limit the commercialization of donkey milk.
• One aspect is the low total fat content compared to human milk. Thus, there’s a need to enrich donkey milk with additional fat to provide adequate calories for children’s diets.
• Another hindrance is the lack of production levels hampering the product’s availability in the market, coupled with the lack of information about it hindering customer’s choices.

Need for Human Clinical Trials

• Despite the existing literature supporting the benefits of donkey milk, in-depth human clinical trials are still lacking to corroborate these findings.
• This research advocates for more trials to generate stronger evidence regarding the therapeutic properties of donkey milk.