MILK HAS HEALING PROPERTIES

BIOACTIVITY: There are substances in ordinary milk which can help heal stomach ulcers. A research team in Denmark will now begin identifying these substances in order to produce beneficial functional foods

Since humans first walked the earth, milk has been the primal nutrient, and it forms an intrinsic part of our diet today. Recent years have seen increasing interest in the properties milk is thought to possess beyond the purely nutritional, and what importance the bioactive substances in milk can have for human health and wellbeing. Currently there is very little knowledge in this area.

Research workers at the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences are now addressing this issue. A four year research project headed by senior research scientist Lotte Bach Larsen will explore the complex world of milk to identify substances which could have benefits beyond the purely nutritional.

Bioactivity
“We will specifically try to identify one or several substances in milk which may have a healing effect on ulcers,” says Lotte Bach Larsen. “One of the things we know about milk is that people with stomach ulcers feel better when they drink it. We don’t know what it is in milk that brings this benefit, but the literature describes certain proteins in milk with a healing effect on ulcers in the gastrointestinal tract.”

“Amazing bioactivity happens when we drink milk,” says Bach Larsen. “We know for instance that milk proteins are broken down into smaller units in the stomach. Some of these fragments, called peptides, could have a beneficial effect on ulcer healing processes in the gastrointestinal tract. Ulcer formation in the gastrointestinal tract is seen for example in patients with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Other peptides might help lower blood pressure and others still might dampen hunger pangs and so have a slimming effect.”

Functional food
The research team will begin examining the various substances in milk to find out whether there are peptides with such bioactive properties in for example various hydrolysates of milk. The team will also examine whether it is feasible to purify the various substances from whey and milk powders. A collaboration partner in the project is the dairy giant Arla Foods, which will supply various milk hydrolysates for the research.

“Our part in the project is probably the closest you can get to fundamental research into various types of milk,” says Lotte Bach Larsen. “The Central Hospital in Viborg and the Colitis-Crohn’s disease patient association will then take over regarding the medical and patient-related part of the project, while Arla Foods handles the development of potential functional food products. But under all circumstances, it will be interesting to see what milk can be used for in addition to drinking it.” The project group leaders comprise Lotte Bach Larsen and Stig Purup, both senior research scientists at the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, and Vibeke Andersen who is a consultant at Viborg Hospital.