Component Fatty Acids from the Fat of Cow Colostrum*

In connection with a recent study on human milk fat (1.) an opportunity was afforded to measure qualitatively and quantitatively the fatty acid distribution in the fat from human milk collected during the first 3 days of lactation. Some differences in composition were observed ,for these colostrum samples when they were compared with mature human milk fat. It was considered desirable therefore to make analyses of fat from cow colostrum in order to have available comparable data. The results from the work with human milk fat indicated that ss the period of lactation progressed from the 1st day’s colostrum to mature milk the amount of phospholipid and high molecular weight acids decreased and the low molecular weight acids increased. In the present investigation of fat from cow colostrum no striking differences from published analyses for fat of mature cow’s milk (2, 3) have been found. In fact the fatty acid analyses of the two are remarkably similar.