Vitamins and minerals compositions from goat milk compared to cow milk.

Abstract

Milk is an important dietary source of essential vitamins and minerals required for human growth, immune function, and metabolic processes. Thus, this research study focused on vitamin and mineral density comparison and evaluation between cow milk and indigenous goat milk: West African Dwarf Goat (WADG) and Red Sokoto Goat (RSG). Milk samples were taken weekly in three successive weeks from the lactating cow, WADG and RSG that were reared at the Delta State University Livestock Farm, Nigeria. Standard laboratory procedures including spectrophotometric, titrimetric, colorimetric, and atomic absorption spectrophotometric methods were used to determine vitamin and mineral composition, while data were analysed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) in R. The results showed that West African Dwarf goat milk contained significantly higher levels of vitamin A (58.31 ± 0.03 µg/100 mg), vitamin C (0.73 ± 0.02 mg/100 mg), calcium (240.12 ± 0.98 mg/100 mg), potassium (264.02 ± 1.10 mg/100 mg), iron (0.24 ± 0.02 mg/100 mg) and zinc (0.86 ± 0.03 mg/100 mg) compared with cow and Red Sokoto goat milk (P < 0.05). However, cow milk showed higher concentrations of riboflavin (0.33 ± 0.01 mg/100 mg) and vitamin E (0.15 ± 0.01 mg/100 mg). There was no statistical significance in the difference in micronutrient makeup in the test animals. The study revealed that indigenous goat milk, particularly from the West African Dwarf breed, contains higher levels of several essential vitamins and minerals than cow milk. Furthermore, the enhanced micronutrient composition suggests potential biotechnological applications of indigenous goat milk in the development of functional dairy products, nutraceutical formulations and nutrition-sensitive food innovations.