Application of instrumental methods for quality control of lactoferrin and raw materials for its production

Abstract

Bovine cattle milk lactoferrin is industrially produced from cow’s milk and used in a variety of functional products, including baby food, nutritional supplements, dairy products, and veterinary drugs. The possibility of obtaining lactoferrin from lactic acid milk wheyrises a particular interest. The purpose of this study is to assess the possibility of using and adapting existing spectrophotometric methods for determining the concentration of total protein and an electrophoretic method for analyzing the protein composition of whey fractions and lactoferrin substances. A comparative study of two methods for determining the total protein in whey fractions and lactoferrin preparations biuret and Bradford method was carried out. The validation parameters of both methods were defined. An analytical range from 30 μg / ml to 1000 μg / ml characterizes the linearity of the Bradford method. The electrophoretic profile of milk, milk whey, whey fractions and substances of lactoferrinwere analyzed. The results obtained indicate a high information content of the electrophoretic method for characterizing the purification efficiency of whey fractions.

Keywords

• lactoferrin
• spectrophotometric methods
• functional products