Fatty Acid Composition of Taiwanese Human Milk : Journal of the Chinese Medical Association (original) (raw)

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: PDF Only

Wu, Tzee-Chunga, b, *; Lau, Beng-Huatc; Chen, Po-Hona, b; Wu, Li-Tea; Tang, Ren-Bina, b

a_Children's Medical Center, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C._

b_National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C._

c_Department of Pediatrics, Shin-Kong Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C._

*Correspondence to: Dr Tzee-Chung Wu, Division of Gastroenterology, Children's Medical Center, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, 201, Shih-Pai Road, Section 2, Taipei 112, Taiwan, R.O.C.

E-mail: [email protected]

Received: May 28, 2010; • Accepted: August 20, 2010.

Abstract

Background:

The purpose of this study was to analyze quantitatively the fatty acid composition of the milk of Taiwanese women.

Methods:

Two hundred and sixty-nine human milk specimens were obtained from 240 Taiwanese mothers, aged 19-41 years, and subjected to chromatographic analysis.

Results:

Milk specimens were pooled by the mothers' districts of residence and lactation stages, at 0-11 days, 22-45 days, 46-65 days and 66-297 days after delivery. The fatty acid composition was expressed as weight percentage of all fatty acids detected with C8-C24 chain length. More than 80% of the fatty acids were composed of lauric, myristic, palmitic, stearic, oleic and linoleic acids. The amount of saturated fatty acid was 36.7%. With regard to essential fatty acids, the amount of linoleic acid (LA) was 22% and that of linolenic acid (ALA) was 1.8%, both levels being higher than in human milk from Western countries. However, the ratio of LA/ALA remained at 13:1 for the whole duration of lactation. It has been reported that mothers with high fish consumption have a high content of docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid in their milk, and we found this phenomenon occurring in our study. The percentage of docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid in Taiwanese human milk was 0.79% and 0.17%, respectively.

Conclusion:

Fatty acid composition in human milk varies during lactation. With regard to essential fatty acids, the amount of LA was 22% and that of ALA was 1.8%, both levels being higher than in human milk from Western and other Asian countries.