A comprehensive review on donkey milk and its products: Composition, functionality and processing aspects

Abstract

Demand of donkey milk is globally increasing because of its important nutritional characteristics, functional properties and pleasant sensory attributes. Donkey milk is highly appreciated for its low energy value, higher content of polyunsaturated fatty acids, essential amino acids and lactose content compared to other (human, bovine and buffalo) milks. Strikingly, donkey milk possesses lower cholesterol, casein to whey protein ratio, higher Ca to P ratio and taurine content than bovine milk. Functional and health promoting attributes of donkey milk in terms of infant nutrition, cholesterol reduction, hypertension minimization, antimicrobial, immunomodulating activities and hypoallergenicity have been meticulously discussed. Apart from it, the scarce information and limited studies on the thermal and non-thermal processing of donkey milk have been clubbed for reader's convenience. In particular, the technological interventions for the formulation of different donkey milk-based products have been highlighted. Thus, donkey milk can be used as a substitute to human milk for infant nutrition and milk protein allergy. The literature review also lays emphasis on the nutritional and functional qualities of donkey milk, which can be retained to a better extent with non-thermal processing than its counterpart.

Keywords

• Donkey milk
• Dairy products
• Functionality
• Non-thermal and thermal processing