Quantification of Fatty Acids in Human, Cow, Buffalo, Goat, Yak, and Camel Milk Using an Improved One-Step GC-FID Method

An efficient gas chromatographic method for the accurate analysis of fatty acid composition in milk was validated. This method provides an excellent resolution of almost 60 fatty acids from odd branched chain fatty acids (OBCFA), trans-monoenoic fatty acid to polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) simultaneously. The quantitation limit was as low as 0.33 similar to 1.80 mg/100 g milk with a good intra-day (RSD 0.53 similar to 9.6%) and inter-day (RSD 1.25 similar to 9.1%) repeatability with an average recovery of 97.3%. This method was applied to determine the fatty acid composition in human, cow, buffalo, goat, yak, and camel milk. Human milk had the lowest amount of saturated fatty acids and highest amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids (31.7 +/- 0.31 g/100 g total fatty acids). Yak milk contained the highest amount of C18:1 trans-11 (3.06 +/- 0.03 g/100 g total fatty acids). Furthermore, the high proportion of butyric acid (12.2 +/- 0.09 g/100 g total fatty acids), OBCFA (2.16 +/- 0.02 g/100 g total fatty acids), alpha-linolenic acid (2.12 +/- 0.02 g/100 g total fatty acids), and arachidonic acid (1.35 +/- 0.02 g/100 g total fatty acids) were found in the milk from two-humped camel.