Nutritional Aspects of Ghee Based on Lipid Composition
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3923/pjn.2019.1107.1114Keywords:
Clarified butter, conjugated linoleic acid, coronary disease, dairy product, ruminant trans fatty acidsAbstract
Background and Objective: Ghee is a dairy product produced from milk, cream or butter of buffalo or cow and for a long time, it has been widely consumed in Asia and the Middle East; nonetheless, in the last few years, the population of the American continent has increased its consumption. For that reason, as well as the lack of a nutritional evaluation of the dairy product, the aim of this study was to establish the fatty acid profile of ghee to define the risks and/or benefits of ghee in human nutrition and health. Materials and Methods: Ghee was elaborated from cow and buffalo butter using the cream butter method and the fatty acid profiles of both samples were determined using gas chromatography with flame ionization detector-GC/FID. Three batches of each type of ghee were produced and a total of eighteen samples were assessed. The data were statistically analyzed by one-way ANOVA followed by the least-significance difference test. Results: The main component of both ghee samples was the lipid fraction comprising approximately 99% of the product from which, 83% (cow) and 85% (buffalo) were fatty acids. The saturated fatty acids were present in the highest proportion (>50%) and palmitic, myristic and stearic acids were dominant; followed by monounsaturated fatty acids (20%), mainly oleic acid; polyunsaturated fatty acids (1.6% for buffalo and 2.6% for cow); and ruminant trans fatty acids (3.5%), where the concentration of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) exhibited differences between cow (1%) and buffalo ghee (0.8%). Conclusion: According to the fatty acid profile and the review of the scientific literature, it was inferred that ghee, either from cow or buffalo milk, has no significant benefits for human nutrition due to the low CLA content and the high saturated fatty acid concentration.
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