Content of lipid nutrients in the milk of Fulani women.

Little is known about the nutrition of the infants of the Fulani, migratory nomads of the western Sahel of Africa. Milk was collected from 18 Fulani women 10 to 30 days postpartum and the fatty acid compositions of the triacylglycerol and phospholipid fractions were determined by capillary gas-liquid chromatography. De novo fatty acids (10:0-14:0) comprised 36.3 +/- 12.7% of fatty acids of the triacylglycerols. Compared to the milk of various populations worldwide, the milk of the Fulani women contained adequate proportions of alpha-linolenic acid (0.50 +/- 0.16%) and arachidonic acid (0.42 +/- 0.22%), but relatively low amounts of linoleic acid (9.95 +/- 2.13%) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) (0.15 +/- 0.08%). In addition, the milk of the Fulani women contained adequate concentrations of beta-carotene (1.58 +/- 0.69 micrograms/dl) and vitamin A (42.7 +/- 40.3 micrograms/dl), but very low levels of vitamin E (0.11 +/- 0.10 mg/dl). These data indicate that exclusively breasted infants of Fulani women were receiving relatively low amounts of critical fatty acids and vitamin E.

Selective retention of n-3 and n-6 fatty acids in human milk lipids in the face of increasing proportions of medium chain-length (C10-14) fatty acids.

This paper reports the results of our analysis of the impact high levels of de novo fatty acids have on the proportions of essential and non-essential fatty acids in human milk lipids. The data for seven fatty acids (linoleic, alpha-linolenic, arachidonic (AA), docosahexaenoic (DHA), palmitic, stearic and oleic) were derived from several studies conducted in Nigeria. The proportion by weight of each of these fatty acids was plotted versus the proportion of C10-14 fatty acids. As the proportion of C10-14 fatty acids increased from 15 to 65%, there was not a proportional decrease in the percentages of all seven fatty acids, but, instead, preferential incorporation of the essential fatty acids, AA and DHA into the triacylglycerol component of the milk. At the same time, the proportions of stearic and oleic acid declined by 69% and 86%, respectively. However, the proportions of linoleic acid, palmitic acid, DHA, AA and alpha-linolenic acid, in milk lipids decreased by only 44%, 40%, 39%, 28% and 2.3%, respectively. These observations indicate that as the contribution of C10-14 fatty acids increases, essential fatty acids are preferentially incorporated into milk triacylglycerols at the expense of oleic acid and stearic acid.