Quality and Therapeutic aspect of camel milk: A review paper

The camel rearing sub-sector has been an integral part of agriculture in Africa, Ethiopia. It has been contributing to the household food, income and poverty alleviation and national economy through export. The country has huge camel resources and made it the fourth leading country camel milk in world. In most camel rearing societies, camel milk is mainly consumed in its raw state without being subjected to any sort of processing treatment. Consumption of raw state camel milk is the major concern from public health point of view Therefore, the milk produced is likely to cause food-borne diseases and the natural antimicrobial factors can only provide a limited protection against specific pathogens and for a short period. However, only little is known about camel milk quality and therapeutic uses or limited researches have been done on nutritional characteristics. Although camel’s milk is known for its various economic and health benefits, unlike the live camel, there is no processing industry, quality and typically not available in pharmacies and also lack of awareness market value for it in Ethiopia. In this review, the quality and therapeutic uses of camel milk deals; as milk is the key base raw material for all dairy products. On the review focused, constituents of camel milk and their therapeutic properties (use) are described, and the factors affecting the chemical composition and processing characteristics of camel milk, and also deals preservation method. Regarding to the chemical composition of camel milk, it contains a high proportion of antibacterial substances and higher concentration of vitamin and minerals in comparison with cow milk. It is also low in protein, sugar and cholesterol and lactose contents. Therefore, camel milk is unique from other ruminant milk in terms of chemical composition as well as functionality as it contains high concentration of immunoglobulins and insulin. The uniqueness (importance of camel milk) as Food security -“second god,and Medicinal qualities of camel milk- on diabetes, autism; immunity, stomach cleansing; infectious diseases e.g. tuberculosis. The objective of this review is to review the physicochemical quality, therapeutic uses microbial quality, preservation method and sensory quality of camel milk.