Recent advances on camel milk: Nutritional and health benefits and processing implications—A review

Camels are important dairy animals and are better milk producers in arid and desert environments than other livestock kept in the same environment. They not only survive but also produce more milk for longer periods than other animals, such as cattle. Camel milk has unique properties and a number of advantages as compared to milk from other species. This paper reviews recent developments on camel (Camelus dromedarius) milk, its nutritional and health benefits. It also addresses the peculiar characteristics of camel milk and its implications on processing and development of camel dairy products. Camel milk has superior nutritional quality and purported medicinal properties against a range of human illnesses including antidiabetic, anti-autistic, anti-microbial, antihypertensive, anticarcinogenic, anticholesterolemic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, hypoallergenic, hepatoprotective and immune boosting effects. The claimed therapeutic property of camel milk is attributed to its possession of various bioactive compounds as well as generation of bioactive peptides from intact proteins during digestion and/or fermentation of the milk. Although available reports mainly based on in vitro studies and animal models indicate the therapeutic potential of camel milk, the clinical effectiveness and value of camel milk as a therapeutic agent has not been conclusively confirmed. Camel milk differs markedly from bovine milk in terms of structural and functional properties of the milk components, and composition of individual proteins and its colloidal structures. These differences present challenges for processing camel milk into products.