Comparative study on amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acid in human and cow's milk.

The importance of the plyunsaturated fatty acid in milk in the growth of nurslings needs no further mention. According to Bosworth et al.(1), arachidonic but no linoleic and linolenic acids are present in the polyunsaturated fatty acid of milk-fat. However, Hilditch et al.(2) reported that milk-fat contains linoleic acid at a level of 5%. Riemenschneider et al.(3) reported that the arachidonic acid content in milk-fat is 1.5%. The presence of 0.17-0.25% of linoleic acid and 0.07-0.17% of linolenic acid was noted by Eckstein(4). From these data it is evident that milk-fat contains the polyunsaturated fatty acid. In the present experiment, the polyunsaturated fatty acid content was determined in human and cow's milk, and based on the data obtained the nutritional value of cow's milk in human nurslings was discussed.