ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Food Chemistry
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1662407
Lipid profile analysis of donkey milk during the lactation
Provisionally accepted
- Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, China
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The lipid profile of donkey milk (DM) at different lactation stages was analyzed using lipidomics in this study. Milk samples were collected from six lactating Dezhou donkeys on days 1, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, and 180 of lactation. A total of 1,552 lipids were identified, belonging to 5 major categories and 21 subclasses. Glycerophospholipids (GP, 62.11%) and sphingolipids (SP, 22.94%) were the predominant categories. At the subclass level, phosphatidylcholine (PC, 27.26%), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE, 17.59%), and phosphatidylserine (PS, 6.77%) were the most abundant lipids. Significant variations in the levels of GP, SP, glycerolipids (GL), and free fatty acids (FA) were observed across lactation stages. Colostrum was rich in GP and SP, whereas mature milk contained more GL. Regarding FA, mature milk had a higher content of linolenic acid than colostrum, while colostrum was richer in carnitines. Fourteen lipids were identified as potential biomarkers for distinguishing between DM from different lactation stages. These results indicate that the lactation stage significantly affects the lipid composition of DM. This study provides a detailed lipidomic profile of DM, which will facilitate its further development and utilization.
Keywords: Lipids, Fatty Acids, Milk, Donkey, Lactation stage
Received: 09 Jul 2025; Accepted: 29 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Du, Ma, Wang and Zhou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Changfa Wang, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, China
Miaomiao Zhou, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, China
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