Abstract
Thirty camel milk samples were subjected to chemical analysis to determine their proximate composition, amino acids, fatty acids, pH, acidity and vitamins, and microbial analysis using standard procedures. Chemical analysis revealed that camel milk is an excellent source of protein, fat and energy. The camel milk contains substantial amount of vitamin C and low amount of thiamine (B-1) and riboflavin (B-2). Amino acids composition revealed high content of glutamic acid, proline, leucine, valine and aspartic acid. Fatty acids profile showed camel milk fat composed of 26.55% palmitic acid, 24.25% oleic acid, 10.2% myristic acid and 9.98% palmitoleic acid with a very low amount of short chain fatty acids. The microbiological results indicated that the mean count per ml for total aerobic plate count, total staphylococci, total proteolytic bacteria, total coliform count, total Psychrotrophs count and total yeasts and molds count were 1.4x10(5), 4.2x10(3), 6.9x10(2), 2.7x10(2), 1.3x10(2) and <10, respectively. The nutritional composition of camel milk showed it a rich source of protein, fat and energy, suggesting that camel milk can be used as food, in functional food or in food formulation to combat the hunger during drought season in arid and semi arid-land.