Milk is the ideal food for all age groups of human being. Milk consists of 87 per cent water and the remaining 13 per cent is the milk sugar lactose, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals. Casein is the chief component of the milk proteins of which about 30 per cent is beta-casein. The major beta-casein variants are A1 and A2. Beta-casein consist a chain of 229 amino acids. Cows that produce milk contain proline amino acid are called as A2 cows. A2 milk is found basically in indigenous cows and buffaloes of India. Around 5,000 years ago, a mutation occurred in this proline amino acid, converting it to histidine amino acid at 67 th position. Cows that have this mutated beta casein protein are called A1 cows. Different mutations bovine beta casein produce 13 genetic variants and out of these A1 and A2 are the most common. A1 β-casein is enzymatically broken down in the intestine to produce beta-casmorphin-7 (β-CM-7) which is an opioid peptide similar to morphine. BCM-7 interacts with the human gastrointestinal tract, internal organs and brainstem. BCM-7 adversely affects the immune response and is also considered as a risk factor for chronic heart diseases (CHD) and juvenile insulin dependent type I diabetes mellitus (DM-I). The original beta casein protein in bovine milk was A2. A2 is more comparable to the human beta casein than A1 in terms of digestive breakdown. Indigenous dairy breeds of cow (Red Sindhi, Sahiwal, Tharparkar, Gir and Rathi) and buffalo produce A2 milk and India is endowed with rich A2 dairy animals.
Seaweed contained health functional polysaccharides and polyphenols. Five extracts were prepared from red seaweed Melanothamnus somalensis; two of these were aqueous at 20°C (F1) and 70°C (F2), followed by acid (F3), alkali (F4) and acid-washed (F5) treatments. Molecular characteristics of extracts were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analyses. Health functionality was determined by sulfate and polyphenol contents, and thermal characteristics were determined by modulated differential scanning calorimetry. Extract F3 contained the highest levels of sulfate followed by F2, F1, F4 and F5, respectively. Similarly, F3 contained the highest polyphenol followed by F4, F2, F1 and F5, respectively. Molecular weight distribution of F1 showed wider distribution of sizes (MW: 1.0 × 103 – 3.0 × 107), and F5 showed a sharp peak (MW: 3.1 × 103); whereas F2, F3 and F4 indicated bimodal distribution. FTIR indicated that all fractions contained agar except F5 and sulfate ester group was attached to carbon 6 of the saccharide.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.